A conference on National Cultural Heritage Protection Projects began in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province, on Dec 19, with over 300 representatives of provincial, municipal, and district cultural heritage departments taking part.

This was the fifth session of the cultural heritage conference and covered the achievements China has made in cultural heritage protection under the 12th Five-year Plan (2011-16), with a discussion of the future course of cultural heritage protection and the projects to come.

Wang Jianwu, the head of the Shanxi provincial cultural heritage bureau, addressed the gathering and explained that, in recent years, the province has been involved in a number of cultural heritage protection projects that were very important. These, Wang added, have all been completed have passed an evaluation by experts.

Tong Mingkang, the vice-head of China’s Cultural Heritage Administration, described the government’s concept on cultural heritage protection and project development, which is referred to as “one goal, two changes, and six innovations”. The idea, starting with the goal, is to improve the quality of its cultural heritage protection projects overall, through innovations in laws and regulations, system construction, better project management, training talented people, better finance management, and better research and applications. It also calls for better macro-management by administrative offices, which is the changes.