China has added another 1,081 cultural heritage sites into the state-level protection list, making the total number on the list to 2,352.

This is the sixth time the Chinese government has selected the most precious cultural heritage sites across the country, including archaeological sites, ancient tombs, ancient buildings, grottos and stone inscriptions, according to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH).

Previously, Chinese government had announced five batches of state-level cultural heritage sites in 1961, 1982, 1988, 1996 and 2001, respectively, with a total number of 1,271.

The selection of the sixth batch of the most precious heritage sites started in 2004. The SACH organized more than 60 experts in the fields of cultural relics, archaeology, construction history and modern history to select the sites from the candidates submitted by local governments.

The number of cultural heritage sites under state-level protection has greatly increased this time. However, Shan Jixiang, head of the SACH, said on Thursday that the total number is still not enough.

"Compared with the long history of China and the large quantity of existing cultural heritages in the country, there are still too few heritage sites put under state-level protection," Shan said.

More than 400,000 ancient relic sites across China have been registered by surveys. But only 1,271 were under state-level protection previously.

In Egypt, over 20,000 heritage sites are protected by the central government, and about 5,000 relic sites in India and 2,823 sites in Vietnam are under state-level protection, Shan said.

With the rapid economic development in China, the contradiction between economic construction and cultural heritage protection is becoming more acute. A lot of cultural heritage sites have been damaged by illegal construction. There have also been many reports of robbing and stealing of ancient tombs in the country.

Under the serious situation, putting more cultural heritage sites under state-level protection will help prevent the destruction to the heritage sites and provide better conservation to the precious sites, Shan added.
 
(Xinhua News Agency March 31, 2006)