Cultural heritage is a city’s unique and rare resource.

Datong, one of the first batch of famous historic and cultural cities, boasts of its cultural landscapes and heritages through the ages.

The Datong municipal Party committee and government have decided to protect the historic and cultural city as a whole since early 2008 because construction and natural forces over the years has brought severe damages to the city and its heritage.

After four years of arduous exploration and practices, Datong has found out a scientific approach to protecting the historic and cultural city and cultural heritages. It incorporates five aspects:

Firstly, change the protective idea of old city reconstruction to ancient town protection with more advanced practices. The municipal government has gradually called off over 60 development and reconstruction projects, and renovated precious cultural relics inundated in ruins.

Secondly, change the protective way from single item protection to integrated protection. Deepen the content of ancient city protection with more comprehensive knowledge, and consider ancient city protection as an organic whole.

Thirdly, change the protective way from opposition to positive protection. The municipal government takes the Imperial River as its axial line, to protect the ancient city west of the river as a whole, and construct a modern new town east of the river.

Fourthly, change the protective way from cultural relic counterfeiting to repairing the old as before. Protect the ancient city with traditional Chinese construction technologies.

Fifthly, change the protective way from development burden to industrial innovation. In the course of protecting the ancient city and cultural relics, Datong has realized that an ancient city with a complete piece of history enjoys great commercial values besides historical and scientific ones. The municipal Party committee and government have made a grand cultural tourism development strategy that integrates the famous cultural town, tourism destinations, ecological appeal, and economic powerhouses.

Datong is thereafter regarded by Chinese experts and scholars as a model city in cultural relic protection with its achievements.

Datong is now experiencing great vitality with its prosperous tourism market all year round. In 2011, Datong had 13.6 billion yuan ($2.15 billion) in tourism revenues, up 15.1 percent from the previous year. It received 15.93 million domestic tourists, up 16.3 percent, and 235,000 overseas tourists, up 16.1 percent.

Nationality features, cultural heritages and values have elevated the core competitiveness of the city. It has also attracting the attention of leading Chinese and foreign groups and enterprises. China Heavy Duty Truck, China Chemical Industry, Chinese Pharmaceutical, Foxconn, GCL-Poly Energy and Shenzhen Huaqiang Cultural Technology have settled down in Datong, infusing new blood for the transformation and development of the city.