Xi's call to preserve heritage leads to excavation

BEIJING－Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has given a series of important instructions and made arrangements to retain cultural roots and safeguard the soul of the nation by promoting the protection of cultural and natural heritage.

In June 2017, President Xi instructed that a cultural belt be built along the Grand Canal.

"The Grand Canal is precious heritage passed down to us by our ancestors and is culture that should be protected, inherited and used," he said.

Answering Xi's call for "protecting and promoting traditional Chinese culture and preserving the historical context", archaeologists have completed an archaeological survey of cultural relics throughout the Xiongan New Area as well as the archaeological exploration and initial excavation of 50 ancient sites and tombs in the 100 square kilometers initial development zone of the area.

As for the protection of the ancient city of Zhengding in Hebei province, Xi has stressed the upholding of the concept of ancient city protection, that is, protecting its historical and cultural values.

During an inspection tour in Beijing, Xi pointed out that history and culture are the soul of a city and people should cherish the city's historical and cultural heritage like their own lives.

When the general secretary visited the Xi'an Museum in Northwest China's Shaanxi province, the first issue of concern to him was the protection of the Small Wild Goose Pagoda.

He said the principle of "restoring it to what it was" should be upheld in ancient building protection.

In Gusheng village in the Dali Bai autonomous prefecture, in Southwest China's Yunnan province, Xi said that while building a new countryside, attention must be paid to "preserving local flavor and style, rural landscape, green mountains and clear waters, and letting nostalgia set in".

When visiting Xiguan, a traditional cultural area in Guangzhou, Xi walked into the Cantonese Opera Art Museum and encouraged fans of the art form to carry forward Cantonese Opera.

During a tour of the northwestern province of Qinghai in August 2016, Xi visited the provincial environmental monitoring center.

Speaking through the videophone system, Xi asked about the management and protection of the ecological resources in the Sanjiangyuan region or the source of China's three major rivers.

In July 2018, Xi presided over the third meeting of the central committee for deepening reform at which a guideline on strengthening reform in the protection and use of cultural relics was approved.

Participants at the meeting said that boosting the reform process when it came to the protection and use of cultural relics was of great significance to the preservation and inheritance of China's cultural heritage.

Speaking about the document, Liu Yuzhu, the head of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, said: "Its formulation has an epoch-making significance to the reform and innovation process when it comes to cultural relic work."