The Chinese edition of the World Heritage magazine of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), was launched in Suzhou Monday to cater to Chinese-speaking readers.

Funded by the UNESCO World Heritage Center, Chinese Heritage is a quarterly magazine solely published by China's World Knowledge Publishing House.

Previously, there were four editions of World Heritage, which were in English, Spanish, French and Russian.

Given the 28th Session of the World Heritage Committee is being held for the first time in China, the UNESCO World Heritage Centeralso launched a special issue of World Heritage, the first time the magazine has had an issue dedicated to the properties of one single nation.

Director Francesco Bandarin of the World Heritage Center said the two new issues would surely help more people understand China, a country with a vast and varied territory and a continuous culture and history that reach back over seven millennia.

At the launching ceremony, Chairman Zhang Xinsheng of the 28th Session of the World Heritage Committee said the new version of the World Heritage magazine would help raise the heritage-protecting awareness of the general public in China and encourage them to shoulder their responsibility in safeguarding heritage properties.
 
(Xinhua News Agency June 29, 2004)