State Councilor Chen Zhili
joined crowds of people to visit an exhibition of precious cultural relics held
in Beijing on Saturday, China's first Cultural Heritage Day.
"The rich, colorful and very precious cultural relics embody the creativity
and vitality of the Chinese nation. They are valuable assets for the sustainable
development of the Chinese nation and also gems of the entire human
civilization," Chen said at the exhibition, held in the National Museum of
China.
This year's "Cultural Heritage Day" bears the theme of "Protecting cultural
heritage and safeguarding the spiritual homeland."
All cultural relic protection sites, museums and memorial halls across the
country are ordered to open free to the public on the day.
Chen said as economic globalization and modernization picks up speed, China
must protect and salvage its cultural relics.
She said colorful public activities, including exhibitions, are needed to
enhance public awareness of the importance of cultural heritage protection and
inspire the young people to love the traditional culture of the motherland.
In Beijing, large crowds were drawn to nearly 100 activities, including
exhibitions of handicrafts, drum beating performance and various sorts of
acrobatics.
In Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, the municipal government
issued medals to 13 outstanding folk artists to honor their achievements. It
also inaugurated an intangible cultural heritage protection center and an
intangible cultural heritage exhibition center.
Establishing the "Cultural Heritage Day" marks one of a series steps taken by
the Chinese government to step up protection of Chinese culture.
A few days earlier, the government announced a list of 1,080 newly named key
cultural relic sites under state protection and 518 items of state-level
intangible cultural heritage.
"The number of such sites named this time is very close to the total number
of those named in the previous five times since 1961," said Shan Jixiang, head
of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.
The number of key cultural relic sites under state protection has risen to
2,351.
He said the number is still not big enough considering China's long history
of civilization and the huge number of cultural relics.
"Our survey shows there are more than 400,000 non-moveable cultural relic
sites in China at present," Shan said.
He said Egypt has put more than 20,000 cultural relic sites under protection
of the central government. The number is around 5,000 in India and 2,823 in
Vietnam.
