Discover China

The countdown continues for the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou in China’s Guangdong Province, with just 100 days to go. Visit the CCTV9 website to find out about the ceremony marking the 100 day countdown and the final touches for games preparation. The vision of the 16th Asian Games is  “Thrilling Games, Harmonious Asia” – to find out more visit the 16th Asian Games website.

On Monday at UNESCO’s 34th meeting in Brazil, UNESCO spoke highly of China’s efforts in protecting the world’s natural and cultural heritage. “China has a great amount of precious heritage and a powerful government system to protect these heritages”, Kristal Buckley, an official of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the organization that evaluates cultural relics for the UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee (WHC), told a news conference. Read more on the CCTV9 website.

UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has decided at its 34th meeting in Brazil to add the historic monuments of Dengfeng and the Danxia landform to the World Heritage list.  To find out more visit the CCTV9 Special Feature.

The historic monuments of Dengfeng are situated in and around Songshan (Mount Song) in Henan Province in central China. Songshan, known in Chinese as Zhongyue, is one of the five sacred mountains in China. The monuments consist of 13 ancient structures and sites including the Shaolin Temple and Pagoda Forest that we visited during our 2009 trip to Henan, Anhui and Zhejiang Provinces – read the story and see the pictures.

The Danxia landform consists of red sedimentary rock located across six Chinese provinces. It is characterised by spectacular cliffs and a range of erosional landforms, including dramatic natural pillars, towers, ravines, valleys and waterfalls. These rugged landscapes have helped to conserve sub-tropical broad-leaved evergreen forests, and host many species of flora and fauna, about 400 of which are considered rare or threatened. For some pictures see this slideshow on the Sina website (click on the photos to advance the slideshow).

For a full list of World Heritage properties in China visit the UNESCO World Heritage website. West Lake in Hangzhou city, which we also visited on our 2009 trip, is planned for nomination for World Heritage listing next year.