By Zhuo Jie and Huang Bin, Institute of Public Administration and Human Resources, Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC)

Report 123, 2014 (Total 4622)

Summary:

Cultural relics are non-renewable treasures. Their preservation is important because it helps inherit and carry forward the wealth of the relics. In the traditional urbanization process, immovable cultural relics and great ruins have suffered due to a series of problems such as the vanishing of historic conservation areas and the decline of ancient villages. This has been exacerbated for various reasons, including the sector's weak law enforcement, light punishment, insufficient market and social involvement, and a lack of standards. The new-type urbanization encourages development of a humane city, highlighting city culture preservation and a combination of urban function promotion and cultural relics preservation. It also pays attention to preserving the entire protection of historic cities and blocks, providing a new opportunity and new requirements for historic preservation work.

The country needs to, in line with the revision of the Law for the Preservation of Antiques, improve the cultural relic sector's management, establish a cooperative working mechanism involving different departments, work on a sound private cultural relics management system, implement severe punishment, guide the reasonable use of cultural relics, and encourage the entire involvement of society in cultural relics preservation undertakings.