BEIJING -- A white paper issued by China's State Council Information Office on Thursday said that cultural heritage has been effectively protected in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

According to the white paper, titled "Human Rights in Xinjiang - Development and Progress," more than 3,000 precious cultural relics have been conserved and renovated.

By the end of 2016, Xinjiang had two world cultural heritage sites, five national historical and cultural cities, 113 cultural relic sites under state key protection, and 558 cultural relic sites under autonomous regional protection, with more than 616,000 tangible cultural relics being collected and kept in 182 state-owned units, it said.

Moreover, spoken and written languages of ethnic minorities are widely used in Xinjiang, according to the white paper.

Xinjiang now has 13 publishing houses publishing books, audio and video products, and e-publications in six languages - Uygur, Han Chinese, Kazak, Kirgiz, Mongolian and Xibe, it said.

The white paper said that Xinjiang publishes 110 newspapers, including 52 in ethnic minority languages, and 200 periodicals, including 120 in ethnic minority languages.