The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development announced the Chinese Traditional Village catalogue on Dec 20. Three villages in the Old Town of Lijiang were included among the total 646 Chinese villages in the catalogue.

The traditional villages are intangible heritages with precious historical, cultural, scientific, artistic, social and economic value.

Feng Jicai, director of the Traditional Villages Protection and Development Committee said,"The earlier we take measures to protect the traditional villages, the less we lose them, as the lack of protection has already led to the rapid disappearance of traditional villages."