On September 17, the 45th UNESCO World Heritage General Assembly held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, adopted a resolution to inscribe China's "Ancient Tea Forest Cultural Landscape of Mount Jingmai, Pu'er" on the World Heritage List, increasing the number of China's world heritage to 57 items. The "Pu'er Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest Cultural Landscape" was successfully inscribed on the World Heritage List, becoming the world's first tea-themed World Heritage Site.

Li Qun, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Director General of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, thanked the World Heritage Committee and the International Council on Monuments and Sites in his address to the General Assembly, expressing the joy and excitement of the Chinese people over the successful inscription of the "Pu'er Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forests and Cultural Landscape" on the World Heritage List of the UNESCO. He said that China will continue to make efforts in strengthening planning, addressing climate change, encouraging villagers' participation and regulating tourism development to ensure that the outstanding and universal value of "Pu'er Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest Cultural Landscape" will be permanently inherited, and will further strengthen international exchanges and cooperation, and take on more responsibilities in the protection of the world cultural heritage, and contribute to promote the exchanges and mutual understanding of civilizations and jointly build a community of human destiny.

It took 13 years for the "Pu'er Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest Cultural Landscape" to be inscribed. 2010, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage first advocated for the inscription of the Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest because of the gap of the tea theme in the world heritage area, and in 2012 it was inscribed on the Tentative List of China's World Cultural Heritage. In 2013, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage requested the State Council to declare the "Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Plantation" as a national key cultural heritage protection unit. In 2013, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage reported to the State Council and announced the Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Plantation as a national key cultural relics protection unit, and supported and guided Yunnan Province and Pu'er Municipality to systematically improve the level of heritage protection, management and display. In January 2021, the State Council approved "Pu'er Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest Cultural Landscape" as China's 2022 World Heritage project, and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage guided Yunnan Province and Pu'er Municipality to prepare and submit the text of the inscription, overcome the impact of the epidemic and adopt an extraordinary, closed-loop approach to pass the on-site technical assessment of the international organization, and ultimately ensure the success of inscription.

Being inscribed on the World Heritage List implies greater protection responsibilities and higher protection standards. The State Administration of Cultural Heritage will continue to guide Yunnan Province and Pu'er Municipality to thoroughly implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter to the 44th World Heritage General Assembly. We will earnestly fulfill the Convention on the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage in the spirit of being responsible for history and people, continuously improve our capacity and level of heritage protection, create a "Chinese case" for the protection of living cultural heritage, tell the Chinese story of tea culture heritage to the world, and continue to contribute to the building of a human destiny community.