Discover China

Established in 2004, the Creative Cities Network connects cities who want to share experiences, ideas and best practices for cultural, social and economic development. Cities may apply to be endorsed by the Network and join the programme to ensure their continued role as centres of excellence and to support other cities, particularly those in developing countries, in nurturing their own creative economy. The Network is divided into seven categories including literature, film, music, crafts and folk art, design, media arts, and gastronomy. A total of 25 cities have joined the Network. The Shenzhen conference on 6-9 December 2010 will be the first UNESCO Creative Cities Network meeting to be held in China. Scholars, industry insiders and government officials from all around the world are invited to attend the conference. To find out more visit UNESCO Creative Cities Network 2010 Shenzhen International Conference.

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.