Time line

A visitor views exhibits at the ongoing show. CHINA DAILY

"We want to make people understand more about the axis and the necessity to protect it through the exhibition, so that more people will support our protection work."

The axis has a history of more than 750 years. It stretches about 7.8 kilometers from the Bell Tower and Drum Tower in the north of the capital to Yongding Gate in the south. Many iconic sights in Beijing, such as the Palace Museum, the Temple of Heaven and the Imperial Ancestral Temple, are located on or alongside the axis.

According to Xiang Dechun, deputy director of Beijing's municipal administration of cultural heritage: "The exhibition will play a big role in raising awareness of the value of the heritage sites along the axis and introduces the work we have done to apply it to be identified as a world cultural heritage. The axis belongs to China and the entire world as an important cultural and historical heritage, so we want to make it better known internationally, and introduce China's aesthetic ideas."