Top 10 cultural relic protection projects of 2014

China's annual top 10 cultural relic protection projects panel of judges announced its awards list in Beijing recently. The Pule Temple repair project in Chengde city, Hebei province, and other nine projects were selected as the best cultural relic protection projects of 2014 after an eight-month review.

Guided by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Chinese Committee for the International Council on Monuments and Sites sponsored the activity with China Cultural Relic News and worked on it since early March. Candidates from different provinces introduced their projects and answered questions from scholars and experts in the field of cultural relic protection.

After assessment and voting by top scholars and experts in the country, the final result came out in early November. In addition to Pule Temple, projects on the final list included the Dou Dafu Temple in the capital of Shanxi province, Guangji Temple ancient building group in Jinzhou city of Liaoning province, ancient buildings along the Middle-East Railway in Heilongjiang province, Meiling Palace in Nanjing of Jiangsu province, chieftain heritage sites in Yongshun county of Hunan province, the Temple of Bodhisattva on the Ancient Tea Route in Sichuan province, Baohua Pavilion in Caoxi Temple in Yuannan province, Water Curtain Cave Grottoes in Gansu province, and Naren Temple in Yushu county of Qinghai province.

According to Tong Mingkang, deputy director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the panel paid more attention to the combination of maintaining the original features and functions of the cultural relics and making reasonable repairs or improvements. Meanwhile, they emphasized that cultural relic sites should introduce more high technology methods into protection projects and strengthen cooperation with the public.

"Through protection projects, cultural relics will live a brand new wonderful life, but we want to see more in such a process. We hope that more people follow with interest in cultural relic protection projects, and make it engaging in daily life with common people. Now, the top 10 projects of 2014 just show us the right methods," Tong said.