Up to now, there have been 187 state-level scenic spots in China, accounting for 1% of the land area; 109 national famous historical and cultural cities; and 157 national famous historical and cultural towns and villages. Among them, 24 scenic spots, historical and cultural cities (towns and villages), and urban gardens have been included in the World Heritage List. These resources are both treasures of the Chinese nation and common wealth of all mankind.

II. Achievements in Heritage Protection and Management

Attaching great importance to the protection of scenic spots, famous historical and cultural cities (towns and villages), city gardens, and world heritage, the Ministry conscientiously implements the guidelines of "scientific planning, strict protection, unified management, and sustainable utilization", and has made remarkable achievements in resource evaluation, planning and management, protection and supervision, which are mainly reflected in the following aspects:

1. Strengthening law and regulation building and protection plan preparation in heritage sites. The Ministry strictly implements the "Urban and Rural Planning Law", the "Ordinance of Scenic Spots", the "Protection Ordinance of Famous historical and Cultural Cities, Towns and Villages", the "Urban Green Line Management Measures", the "Urban Purple Line Management Measures", and other laws and regulations and departmental rules. As for heritage site protection, it adheres to the principle of "planning first", intensifying protection plan preparation and implementation. The development and construction in heritage sites have been standardized gradually through constant reinforcement of planning and construction management.

2. Through intensification of scientific and technical protection, heritage site protection, supervision and management have reached the world's advanced level. The Ministry pays much attention to introducing advanced technical means to monitor heritage sites. Under its guidance, most heritage sites have established technical monitoring systems represented by satellite remote sensing monitoring of scenic spots, capacity monitoring of scenic spots and other cutting-edge technical monitoring systems, achieving real-time dynamic monitoring of heritage land use, construction projects, the ecological environment, fire emergencies, natural disasters, the tour order and other protection and management work. In particular, the application of satellite remote sensing monitoring system of scenic spots has greatly improved the protection and management level and work efficiency, thus realizing regular and irregular monitoring of heritage site planning and implementation and of resource and environment protection. Through implementation of satellite remote sensing monitoring of scenic spots in heritage sites in a large area, it has improved the heritage site management level of modernization, scientification, informationization and digitization.

3. Sticking to serving the society and rationally using precious resources in heritage sites. For 20 years, the Ministry has been dedicated to guiding all heritage sites to achieve reasonable utilization and serve the society on the basis of protection, so as to promote sustainable use of heritage resources. In different places, world heritage, scenic spots, famous historical and cultural cities (towns and villages), and urban gardens are taken as main carriers to develop the tourism industry, greatly promoting the economic and social development. Great improvement has been made in transportation, communication, electricity and other infrastructural services in and around remote and poverty-stricken heritage sites, where many jobs were offered and people became prosperous. Furthermore, great stress is laid on the function of popular science education and display in various heritage sites, where education on resource and environment protection and other aspects has been given in order to improve the national awareness of resource conservation and environmental protection.

III. Further Strengthening China's Policies and Measures for Heritage Protection

Although great achievements have been made in heritage resource protection and standardized management, there is still much work to do in heritage protection and management in China. Therefore, the Ministry will further reinforce heritage protection and management on the basis of previous work, and take effective measures to resolve issues in protection and management in China.

1. To further reinforce China’s protection, management and plan preparation work of world natural heritage sites and world natural and cultural heritage sites, establish and perfect the protection, management and planning system of major cultural and natural heritage, and complete overall plan preparation and approval. By scientifically delimiting core scenic spots, the Ministry will strengthen the preparation work of core scenic spot protection plans, include this delimiting task into the overall planning as mandatory content, and make specific protection measures for strict implementation.

2. To perfect relevant laws and regulations and standards. The Ministry will establish and improve the performance evaluation system of supervision and inspection, protection and management of major cultural and natural heritage, for the purpose of enhancing supervision and inspection of protection and management in world natural heritage sites and natural and cultural heritage sites in China, and optimizing the long-term management mechanism of major cultural and natural heritage. It will do well in publicizing and implementing the “Ordinance of Scenic Spots” and the "Protection Ordinance of Famous Historical and Cultural Cities, Towns and Villages", and study and formulate the “Codes for Scenic Spot Management Technology”, the "Famous Historical and Cultural Towns (Villages) Heritage Resource Classification and Survey and Evaluation Criteria" and other technical standards and norms, in order to promote standardized management of cultural and natural heritage resources.

3. To intensify regulatory capacity building. By establishing and improving the regulatory information system engineering of major cultural and natural heritage, the Ministry will conduct remote sensing dynamic monitoring of protection and plan implementation. It will actively promote infrastructure construction of heritage site digital management, perfect the technical and service support system, and comprehensively reinforce scientific research on heritage protection. Through intensification on propaganda, more attention can be drawn from the entire society to protection of major cultural and natural heritage. Active in staff training and education, the Ministry will improve the technical ability of people in the profession. With expansion of financing channels, public funds will extensively be absorbed for major cultural and natural heritage protection, and a sound and stable investment security mechanism will be established.