Two Ming dynasty imperial tombs were included in the World Heritage
List (WHL) on a UNESCO committee meeting held Thursday.
The group of mausoleums near Beijing where were buried 13 emperors
of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and therefore called "Ming's
Thirteen Tombs" in Chinese, were added to the WHL during the 27th
session of the UNESCO's World Heritage Committee.
The Ming imperial tomb in Nanjing, China's eastern province of
Jiangsu, where was buried Zhu Yuanzhang -- first emperor of the
Ming dynasty, was also put on to the list.
The two groups of tombs are seen as showcase of the funeral
architecture and culture centuries ago in China.
Together with three other Ming and Qing mausoleums, the World
Heritage Committee now counts five Chinese imperial tombs on its
list, established in the 1970s to better protect world's cultural
and natural heritage.
The Committee, organ depending on the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), on Wednesday also
put the area of the confluence of three major rivers in China's
southwestern province of Yunnan
onto its list of natural heritage.
The area, where join Nujiang River, Lancang River and Jinsha River,
covers about 41,000 square kilometers in Yunnan Province, to the
south of the Qinghai-Tibet Highland. It is famous for its peculiar
physiognomy and biological diversity
As
of today, on the WHL of more than 730 sites, 29 properties are in
China, 21 of which are cultural, four natural and four mixed. The
most famous ones are the Great Wall, Mount Taishan, Mogao Caves,
Potala Palace, Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian in Beijing and
others.
(Xinhua News Agency July 4, 2003)