New program aims to boost citizens' understanding of cultural relics

China has launched a pilot program to identify and protect a new category of immovable cultural relics that bear witness to the country's historical events, state governance, regional culture, and ethnic integration, an official said on Thursday.

Yan Chong, deputy director of regional division and geographical names department with the Ministry of Civil Affairs, told a news conference that the pilot aims to select about 15 areas across the country.

The program encourages qualified areas to pilot innovative approaches to managing cultural relics tied to administrative divisions and place names, from survey to protection and use.

The program, jointly issued by the ministry and the National Cultural Heritage Administration, aims to enable the public to further investigate the profound cultural meaning and historical accumulation behind administrative divisions and geographical names, to deepen their understanding of, identification with, and confidence in our nation, our ethnic groups, our culture, and our homeland, Yan said.

"The relics are immovable cultural objects that reflect the establishment of administrative divisions, the naming and evolution of places in specific historical periods," he said, adding that place names are a crucial identifier for naming and interpreting immovable relics.

For example, nationally protected sites such as the Ancient City of Pingyao in Shanxi province and the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, Gansu province, could not be named without their associated place names, he added.