China praised for preserving cultural heritage

BEIJING - The president of an international cultural organization has praised China's progress in cultural heritage preservation.

Gustavo Arazo, head of the Paris-based International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), made the comments at a Beijing meeting of the organization's Advisory Committee on Monday.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

Arazo said that China had "wholeheartedly" embraced the Convention with the concept of international cooperation and sharing freely with the world the experiences in protecting cultural heritage.

He highlighted the country's successful integration of physical cultural heritage sites with intangible cultural traditions. He also praised the country's prompt heritage recovery plan after a major earthquake in 2008 western China.

He said other countries and the organization could learn from China,adding that the nation's experience in how to integrate heritage into a developing society was especially valuable.

Arazo also noted said that China had made huge progress in saving heritages during urbanization.

Along with the rapid change, people may think that heritage sites have no function, but the Chinese have been able to convince the public that those places have an important meaning in society, said Arazo.

Despite the challenges being huge, he believed that China's determination in protecting heritage is equally as big.