The Ministry of Culture has agreed to build an experimental zone in China's northwestern Qinghai province to protect Tibetan ecological and cultural heritage.

According to Wang Dongmei, head of the culture and sports bureau in the Yushu Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Qinghai, the zone will cover the city of Yushu and its adjacent counties.

On the zone's protection list are physical and cultural heritage items related to the local Tibetan people in the Sanjiangyuan area, which is home to the headwaters of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang (Mekong) rivers, Wang said.

Yushu is home to seven national-level cultural heritage sites, 29 provincial-level sites and two historical villages. Songs, dances and costumes of ethnic minorities, as well as metal forging techniques are all listed as intangible heritage in China.

Wang said that Yushu has 11 national items of intangible heritage and 24 national "cultural inheritors".

"The experimental zone will help the protection of Tibetan culture and local ecology as a whole, as well as sustainable development of the society and economy," said Tsering Teg, governor of Yushu.

Yushu has recovered from a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that hit the region on April 14, 2010. It affected 246,800 people, leaving 2,220 dead and more than 100,000 homeless.