On the occasion of April 18th, the International Day for Monuments and Sites, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping jointly announced the result of their phase I research and surveying work for the Great Wall which had started in 2006, and declared the length of the Ming dynasty Great Wall: 8851.8 km.
The Director General of the SBSM, Mr. Xu Deming, announced this result to the public at the foot of the Badaling section of the Great Wall. This is the first time that the length of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall has been accurately measured out. Representatives from the Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress, the State Ministry of Culture, Beijing Municipal Government, Unesco Beijing and Foreign Embassies, together with over 300 people witnessed this important moment.
A speech was given reporting to the public the working progress on the investigation and conservation of the Great Wall carried out by the government. After the Ming Great Wall, the Wall from Qin and Han Dynasties, as well as that from other periods will be investigated. By the year 2010, the surveying and documentation of the enormous heritage resource will be done; the "Great Wall Conservation Master Plan" will be finished with a defined core zone and buffer zone, major consolidation and restoration work will then be carried out.
9 to 11 April, Wuxi: The 4th Forum of Chinese Cultural Heritage Conservation
Another annual event corresponding the International Day for Monuments and Sites is the "Forum for the Conservation of Chinese Cultural Heritage" (also known as the Wuxi Forum) which takes place every year around April 18th in the city of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. Starting in 2006, the Wuxi Forum has been successfully held for 4 years, with the theme respectively as "Industrial Heritage", "Vernacular Architecture", and "the 20th Century Heritage" for the first three years. The forum combines the international heritage topics with the Chinese domestic development, and stimulates discussions on the conservation of different types of cultural heritage each year.
This year, referring to the international theme "Heritage and Science", and considering the current needs for the research and conservation of the cultural routes in China, the theme of the forum 2009 was set as "the Scientific Conservation of Cultural Routes" with two sub-themes as "the Identification and Evaluation of Cultural Routes" and "the Scientific Conservation of Cultural Routes". Over 100 heritage experts and professionals attended the forum, with 43 papers submitted. On the opening of the forum, the director in general of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH), Mr. Shan Jixiang gave a keynote speech "The Theory and Practice of the Integrated Conservation for Cultural Routes in China", after which, the participants carried out in-depth discussions from various aspects of cultural route conservation, as well as visited a few heritage sites related to the Grand Canal looking into their state of conservation and interpretation. Senior consultant Jeffery Soule of APA (American Planners' Association) joined the discussion.
Contact ICOMOS China
TONG Mingkang
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