Participants at a forum on cultural heritage preservation and inheritance agreed on Friday that it's important to strengthen the systematic protection of cultural heritage, promote the coordinated conservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and integrate cultural heritage into modern life and empower urban development.

Scholars in cultural heritage conservation and officials from relevant authorities gathered together for the subforum, with the theme of building a holistic protection framework for cultural heritage. It was held as part of the two-day Forum on Building up China's Cultural Strength 2026 in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, which opened on Thursday.

Zhang Jie, a professor at Tsinghua University's School of Architecture, emphasized the importance of implementing the three core principles of cultural heritage conservation: authenticity, integrity and dynamic inheritance.

"Our research team classifies a city's core functions, including living, production, religion, administration, commerce and military uses. Even if most old settlements are no longer intact, the remaining blocks still reflect the city's full functional layout," he said in his keynote speech.

For example, he said, the cultural heritage protection of Beijing should not be limited to areas such as Nanluoguxiang. "Instead, we should safeguard the capital's overall urban structure, fully preserve the rich historical information of all heritage sites, and integrate them into modern life."

"The coordinated protection of tangible and intangible cultural heritage has emerged as a new concept and approach in the field of cultural heritage protection in the new era," said Yang Lihui, a professor at the School of Chinese Language and Literature, Beijing Normal University.

She cited the well-preserved ancient wooden covered bridges in China as an example of such coordinated protection.

These bridges were built using traditional Chinese mortise-and-tenon joints, with no nails or rivets at all. Local artisans have kept their craftsmanship alive for generations through oral teaching, family inheritance, and master-apprentice training.

Local governments and community groups, working with intangible cultural heritage and cultural relics protection centers, have supported craft inheritors and master carpenters in protecting and restoring wooden arch bridges, as well as in safeguarding their surrounding environment and local culture.

In 2024, traditional designs and practices for building Chinese wooden arch bridges were transferred from UNESCO's List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Yang suggested fully reviewing successful practices across the country, identifying replicable, scalable and demonstrable models, and compiling and publishing a collection of typical cases on the coordinated protection of tangible and intangible cultural heritage in China.

Shexian county, Anhui province, has revitalized heritage buildings by introducing various new business formats, such as an immersive night tour performance, a themed coffeehouse and hanfu, a Chinese traditional attire, experiences.

The Huizhou ancient city scenic area in Shexian county is a popular destination for study tours, offering hands-on workshops including ink stick and inkstone making, and paper cutting.

"We balance and coordinate conservation and development to ensure sound interaction between cultural inheritance and socioeconomic progress," Wang Qiyong, head of Shexian county, said in his keynote speech.

Ding Hongtao, Party secretary of Weishan Yi and Hui autonomous county, Southwest China's Yunnan province, agrees.

"Protection always comes first. We must balance protection and development, and tradition and modernity, so that history and culture blend into modern life," he said.

Weishan ancient city keeps its complete city layout from the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911).

"We encourage local residents to live in and renovate their own houses, and live and work locally. They should be both participants and beneficiaries of ancient city conservation. About 90 percent of the original inhabitants still live in the ancient city's core area," Ding said.

xulin@chinadaily.com.cn