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Protection
of Cultural Relics
Since the beginning of the 1990s,
China has protected a huge number of cultural relics and achieved
remarkable success. The special subsidies appropriated by the Central
Government for the protection of cultural relics in more than 1,000
projects have reached about 700 million RMB yuan. As a result, a
large number of cultural relics have been saved from destruction.
Prominent successes in the maintenance and protection of historical
sites are the Potala Palace (Lhasa, Tibet), the Kumbum Monastery
(Huangzhong County, Qinghai Province), the Caves at Mount Sumeru
(Guyuan County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region), the Kizil Thousand-Buddha
Cave (Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region), the Longmen Grottoes (Luoyang
City, Henan Province), the Yungang Caves (Datong City, Shanxi Province),
the Goddess Hall (Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province), the Mountain Summer
Resort (Chengde City, Hebei Province), the Thatched Cottage of Tang
Poet Du Fu (Chengdu City, Sichuan Province), and the Tianyi Pavilion
(Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province). In 1996, the State Council announced
the fourth batch of national important cultural relics protection
units, numbering 250 and bringing the total to 750. There are 99
national historical and cultural cities. In 1995, the UNESCO placed
on the World Heritage List the Potala Palace in Tibet, the Mountain
Summer Resort, together with its adjacent temples in Chengde City,
Hebei Province, the Confucius Temple, the Confucius Family Mansion
and the Confucius Woods in Qufu City, Shandong Province, and the
ancient architectural complex on Mount Wudang in Hubei Province.
The planned scientific excavation
of cultural relics has laid a good foundation for the improvement
of archeological theory and practice, and research into ancient
Chinese history. Aeronautical, underwater and desert archeological
studies have provided important historical information and data
for economic construction, and new techniques of and approaches
to the development of cultural relics protection.
In recent years, China
has been taking an unprecedentedly active part in foreign exchanges
and cooperation in terms of cultural relics. About 150 cultural relics
exhibitions have been held in the U.S., Argentina, France, Britain,
Germany, Italy, Denmark, Japan, Republic of Korea, Australia, and
Singapore. The Exhibition of Tombs of Chinese Emperors held in the
U.S., the Exhibition of Tibetan Treasures and the Exhibition of the
Yellow River Civilization held in Italy, and the Exhibition of Laolan’s
Cultural Relics and the Exhibition of the Terracotta Legion of the
First Qin Emperor held in Japan presented the splendors of the great
ancient Chinese civilization to large and appreciative audience. |
