Xi'an moves to protect rich historical, cultural heritage

Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, was recently ranked 7th among Chinese cities for the protection and stewardship of its historical and cultural heritage.

This was according to a report released by School of Archaeology and Museology of Peking University, Innovation Center for Technology of Tsinghua University and Tsinghua Tongheng Urban Planning & Design Institute, as well as People's Cultural Tourism Research Institute.

Due to its profound history and culture, Xi'an has six world cultural heritage sites: namely the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (including the Terracotta Warriors), the Weiyang Palace, Daming Palace, Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Small Wild Goose Pagoda and Xingjiao Temple.

For many a year, Xi'an has insisted on giving utmost priority to the protection of its cultural relics and promoting the prosperity and development of its cultural industries.

At the end of 2020, the city rolled out plans to strengthen the reforms of its cultural relics protection and utilization program. The blueprint clarified that by 2025, the city's cultural relics protection and management capabilities would be significantly improved and the level of cultural relics displays and utilization would be greatly improved.

Currently, Xi'an has 157 museums and a collection of more than 2.02 million cultural relics, with artifacts coming from historical sites ranging from the Xia (c.21st century-16th century BC) to the Tang (618-907) dynasties, to modern and contemporary revolutionary sites.

Relying on its rich historical and cultural heritage resources, the city has also actively promoted the transformation and upgrading of many historical and cultural areas -- in order to advance the protection, planning and construction of its historical and cultural precincts.

Meanwhile, Xi'an has continued to strengthen the management of its world cultural heritage -- striving to establish a complete world cultural heritage protection, management and monitoring ecosystem.