China will spend 250 million yuan (US$30.8 million) annually on protection projects for large-scale ancient remains throughout the country, according to a senior Chinese cultural heritage official.

"The protection projects plan is designed by the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, aiming to pay close attention to ancient ruins with significant influence and special values," said Zhang Bai, deputy director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. Statistics show that China has more than 400,000 cultural heritage sites, of which some 70,000 are listed as cultural protection units at different levels.

Among these protection units, 1,271 are under State-level protection, and 30 are listed as world heritage, Zhang said.

At present, China has more than 2,200 museums, with more than 20 million cultural relic collections.

The cultural heritage official said that the central government has been paying more attention to the protection of cultural heritage and investing more money for the protection projects.

During the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-05), the central government invested a total of 2.2 billion yuan (US$275 million) in cultural heritage protection, 20.5 per cent more than the investment in the previous Five-Year Plan, the deputy director said.

"China is undergoing rapid urbanization, which is a great challenge to cultural heritage protection. With the efforts made to improve people's living environment and speed up economic development, the Chinese Government tries hard to deal with the relations between cultural heritage protection and economic growth, and pays more attention to the protection of historical cities and street blocks with ancient styles," Zhang said.

In the State key construction projects, such as Three Gorges Project, South-North Water Diversion Project, transporting natural gas from the west to the east and Qinghai-Tibet Railway, cultural heritage protection is being done properly, the senior official said.

Zhang stressed that China has also strengthened international co-operation on cultural heritage protection. On one hand, China uses advanced foreign technologies for its own cultural relics protection projects in Gansu's Dunhuang Mogao Caves, Beijing's Forbidden City, Xi'an's Ming Dynasty Palace ruins, Luoyang's Longmen Grottoes and Chengde's Summer Palace. "And on the other hand, as a responsible cultural nation, China has played a positive role in heritage restoration projects in Cambodia and Mongolia," the deputy director said.

As the signatory state of four international joint treaties for cultural heritage protection, China positively fulfills its international duty in combating criminal activities of robbing and smuggling cultural relics by co-operating with relevant countries and regions, the official said.

(China Daily October 8, 2005)