The Chinese State Council has listed the Spring Festival, Peking Opera, acupuncture, The Legend of Madame White Snake and Shaolin Kungfu in the first batch of intangible cultural heritage of the country.

The list contains 518 items in ten species, including folk literature, folk music and dance, traditional opera, ballad singing, cross talks, acrobatics, folk fine arts, traditional handicraft, traditional medicine and folk-custom, the State Council announced on its website on Friday.

The 518 items were selected by a jury organized by the Ministry of Culture and the Academy of Arts of China from more than 1,300 candidates across the country.   

(Xinhua News Agency June 2, 2006)