Leadership Insights | Xi's Stories: Shanxi-New Practices of Local Governments in the New Era

Comprehensively improving the protection and utilization of cultural relics and the conservation and inheritance of cultural heritage

Shanxi, noted for its territory “sheltered by magnificent mountains and rivers” since ancient times, is one of the birthplaces of Chinese civilization. Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, Shanxi has shouldered the responsibility as a province with abundant cultural relics and resources, and continuously used major archaeological achievements to prove the Chinese nation’s million-year human history, 10,000-year cultural history, and more than 5,000-year civilizational history. It has made great progress in coordinating cultural heritage conservation and economic and social development, with its ability in cultural relics management further improving. 

As of the beginning of 2023, Shanxi had a total of 531 major cultural heritage sites under national-level protection, ranking first in the country.

Among them, there are 420 ancient buildings, accounting for 79% of the total, ranking first in the country;

221 sites have been open to the public, ranking first in the country; 

And 39 sites have been designated as national treasures by the provincial government. 

Of all the 117 counties (county-level cities and districts) in the province, 101 have major cultural heritage sites under national-level protection. 

A total of 1,150 sites have been inscribed on the list of revolutionary sites, making it the province with the most complete and abundant cultural relics related to the Eighth Route Army and the Red Army’s Eastern Expedition. 

In 2023, Shanxi completed the emergency maintenance of the Yungang Grottoes and other cultural heritage sites. 

“Research on Structural Stability Assessment and Protection of Yinxian Wooden Pagoda” was approved as a national key research project. 

The province built a key research base for Yungang studies under the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. 

It also completed the enrollment of 120 grassroots cultural relics professionals.

The Bicun site was listed among the Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries in China in 2022. 

The demonstration zone for the protection and utilization of ancient residences in Jincheng was listed among the second batch of national cultural heritage protection and utilization demonstration zones. 

(Sources: Shanxi Provincial People’s Government and the National Administration of Cultural Heritage)

We should not only conserve cultural relics, but also breathe new life into them. Today, Shanxi is actively exploring the effective use of cultural relics, so that cultural relics will radiate new vitality in the new era. These efforts have not only improved the protection and utilization of cultural relics and the conservation and inheritance of cultural heritage, but also injected new impetus into Shanxi’s cultural prosperity and economic development.