At 17:38 on July 25^th, “Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China”, a nominated project of world heritage from China, was passed at the 44^th World Heritage Committee Conference of UNESCO. The project was listed in the “World Heritage List”, making the total number of China’s world heritage rise to 56.

    It’s written in the resolution of the conference that “Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China” reflected the unique and outstanding space structure of a port city in a certain historical period. It’s 22 heritages covered multiple important cultural elements, including social structure, administration institution, transportation, production, commerce and trade, all of which supported Quanzhou’s gradual development from 10^th to 14^th century AD, making it a maritime station for the trade net in the East Asia and South East Asia and contributing a lot to the social economic development of East Asia and South East Asia. The world heritage committee made the decision to list “Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China” in the “World Heritage List” according to the standard iv of the “Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage”　　

    Representatives including li Qun, China’s director of National Cultural Heritage Administration, and Wang Yongli, China’s vice minister of culture and tourism, spoke on behalf of states parties.

    In the speech given by Li Qun, he said how happy Chinese people were when they heard that “Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China” was added to the “World Heritage List”. He expressed his gratitude to the world heritage committee and International Council on Monuments and Sites as well as China’s determination to protect world heritage and do relating management works; to enhance international communication and cooperation and to shoulder more responsibilities relating to world cultural heritage, so as to promote communication and mutual learning between civilizations of different countries and to contribute to the construction of a community for mankind with a shared future.

    “Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China” was successfully listed in the “World Heritage List”. It’s the latest achievement and the latest experience of archeologist research and heritage protection of National Cultural Heritage Administration, Fujian Provincial People’s Government and Quanzhou Municipal People’s Government, all of which followed the general secretary Xi Jinping ‘s series of important instructions relating to cultural heritage. On November 12^th, 2001, Zi Jinping, governor of Fujian province back then, studied and arranged the declaration of cultural heritage by himself. In the following 20 years, with the support of the State Council and CPC Central Committee, National Cultural Heritage Administration and Quanzhou Municipal People’s Government organized archeology events, cultural heritage protection and research and environment improvement participated by high-level domestic professional institutes, including Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peking University and China Architecture Design & Research Group. Abundant scholar achievement had been made, the level of heritage management and exhibition had been improved. In addition they cooperated with International Counsil of Monuments and Sites, an international authoritative and professional institute, to improve the strategy of heritage declaration and improve the technology route, both of which set firm base and push the protection of Quanzhou’s historical and cultural city in all aspects, offering experience of the win-win cooperation of the integration and the development of cultural heritage protection and local economic development for other places.

    The successful declaration of cultural heritage of “Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China” proved that the communication and mutual learning between ancient China and other countries were traditional beliefs and glorious history as well as Chinese vision, wisdom and bravery. It’s significant for cultural confidence, social progress and cultural development.