Old tea forests on Jingmai Mountain named World Heritage Site

As UNESCO World Heritage Committee noted on the 45th Session: "(It) represents an exceptional testimony of the under-story tea cultivation traditions that enabled the development of a complementary spatial distribution of different land uses providing ecosystems and micro-climates that support both the cultivation of old tea forests and the well-being of communities residing in this organically evolved cultural landscape."

The committee noted that the cultural landscape is also an outstanding example of a sustainable land-use system based on a combination of horizontal and vertical land-use patterns.

It further stated: "This land-use system permits the complementary use of natural resources in the mountainous environment of Jingmai Mountain and represents an exceptional example of a human interaction by Blang and Dai peoples in a challenging environment."

Li Qun, director of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, vowed in Riyadh that China will strengthen efforts to better supervise the heritage site, face climate change, guide local communities to join in protection and regulate tourism to ensure lastingly inherited outstanding universal values of the old tea forests.

"We'll also advance international exchange and cooperation and take more responsibilities in the World Heritage circle," he said.