China is making efforts to better protect historical sites with
the drafting of a statute, publicized by the Legislative Affairs
Office of the State Council on Thursday to seek opinions from the
public.
According to the new proposition, people who are responsible for
damaging the outlook, environment, or features of historical and
cultural cities, towns, and villages will be severely punished.
Relevant institutions can be fined up to one million yuan
(US$131,500), and individuals might be fined for a maximum of
200,000 yuan, the draft says.
Movie production teams must get approval from the authorities
before they move into historical sites, and they would be required
to make protection plans to submit in advance.
The 51-clause draft statute says urban and rural development
plans should be drawn up in line with the principles of cultural
heritage protection.
The draft also asks local governments to make greater efforts to
protect cultural heritage by "maintaining their real nature and
integrity," and "finding a point of balance between protection and
development". Governments at city and county-level would be asked
to survey buildings of historical value in their regions and put up
signs.
In 1982, the State Council approved the first batch of
"historical cities", selected because they were capitals in ancient
times, or places where major historical events took place; China
had 107 "historical cities" by the end of March this year.
Accelerating urbanization is destroying China's cultural and
architectural heritage as some local governments dismantled
valuable historical sites and erected fake replacements, or built
large, new, and exotic buildings.
The draft also demands that local governments set aside special
funds to finance the protection of historical sites. Statistics
show that China earmarked a combined 189 million yuan for cultural
heritage protection from 2001 to 2005; the funds allocated for 2006
alone reached 149 million yuan.
(Xinhua News Agency July 27, 2007)