China and France to jointly repair Notre Dame de Paris

The joint declaration on Wednesday also outlined a bilateral project between France and China focusing on the 2,200-year-old Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, at the Mausoleum of Qinshihuang, the first emperor of China.

"The Terracotta Warriors and Notre Dame are the most important symbols among the UNESCO World Heritage sites of China and France respectively," Liu says. "This collaboration shows our established relationship and highlights the mutual trust between the two countries."

The newly announced project will cover exchanges in conservation technology, joint scientific research and training programs. 

According to Zhao Qiang, director of the Shaanxi Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, cooperative studies and conservation between the province and France began in 2016 to cover the renovation of Gongshu Hall, a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) temple, and the stone carvings at Maoling, an emperor's mausoleum of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC to 24 AD).

The French Development Agency also provided a 60 million euro ($66.7 million) low-interest loan for the conservation of cultural heritage sites in Fengxiang county, Shaanxi, in October 2018.