After over 20 years development, China now has 40 world heritage sites in total, among which 28 are cultural heritage sites, 8 are natural heritage sites and 4 are both cultural and natural heritage sites. China ranks 3rd in the world for its amount of world heritage. None of these world heritage sites of China has been put on the endangered list or removed from the world heritage list. This doesn’t mean that China has been doing a good job protecting those heritage sites. There are still many things that need improving.

China Danxia Landform was listed into the World Heritage by the World Heritage Committee at its 34th meeting held in Brasilia, capital of Brazil on August 1.

How many world heritage sites a country owns can reflect how much intelligent contribution it and its people have made to world history. From this perspective, it’s the mission of the Chinese government and every Chinese citizen to promote the longevity of every world heritage site scattered around China.

In 1994, approved by Chinese government, the UNESCO sent a group of experts to China to make an on-the-spot investigation on the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian, Qin Shi Huang's Buried Sculpture Legion and Mo Kao Grotto at Dunhuang which were the first five heritage sites of China being put on the world heritage list in 1987. Through continuous test and professional investigation later, the UNESCO firmly approved China’s heritage protection. In 2006, the Ministry of Culture published the Administrative Measures for the Protection of World Cultural Heritage. Since then, China has begun to implement the monitoring and inspection system. World cultural heritage sites which are damaged in terms of value, authenticity and wholeness due to improper use will be put on the caution list and made public. In December 2006, the State Bureau of Cultural Relics of China defined the procedures, responsibilities and contents of the monitoring system for world cultural heritage protection.

During the 31st World Heritage Convention held in 2007, ancient town of Lijiang attracted the world heritage committee’s attention and inquiries, the experts doubted that whether Lijiang could deal with the pressure of social development and overdevelopment. Over the ten years since Lijiang has been listed as world cultural heritage in 1997, the amount of the Naxi minority people reduced from about 40,000 to several thousands. Most of them moved out of the town. Instead, tens of thousands of tourists went there every day. The town has become a busy shopping center full of bars.