Musundali Bhuiyan
With almost no exception, Bangladeshi students, especially job aspirants, are seen memorizing the basic information about the Great Wall and The Great Canal of China. Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City of Beijing are also two other household names to many Bangladeshis.
Before my first arrival in Beijing four years ago, my knowledge of the cultural heritage of China couldn’t surpass that of other Bangladeshis who have never visited the land of an ancient civilization.
However, during my nearly four-year stay in Beijing, I could have a glimpse of a huge treasure of cultural heritage of the country. I have also been fortunate enough to visit some of the important heritage sites in China, which has immensely helped me learn how rich China culturally is and how the country has long been discovering and preserving its treasures.
When it comes to the preservation of cultural heritage, I need to mention the name of none but President Xi Jinping. Because I have found this great leader to attach great importance to the national research projects on tracing the origins of Chinese civilization. During my time living in China, as I could remember, the President has visited several heritage sites and every time he encouraged the concerned people of the sites to preserve them.
To elevate their endeavors to preserve the heritage to global standards, China joined the International Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1985.
Now, China has 50 world heritage sites, recognized by UNESCO; of them, 35 are cultural, 11 are natural heritage sites, and 4 are cultural and natural (mixed) sites, ranking second in the world.
In my opinion, China thinks the protection of intangible cultural heritage is the task of all of humanity and it also joined the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2004.
China has since made significant progress in the preservation of heritage sites. The country undertook its first large-scale renovations on seven world cultural heritage sites in Beijing, including the Ming Tombs, the Great Wall, and the Forbidden City, all of which were completed before 2008.
Besides, from 2005 to 2009, China carried out its first nationwide census of intangible cultural heritage, counting nearly 870,000 intangible cultural heritage resources, with several of them inscribed on UNESCO's list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
The UNESCO World Heritage Sites in China comprise some of the most essential parts of China's valuable and rich tourism resources. I have also visited some of them, including Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, The Great Wall, and The Grand Canal.
Among 42 intangible cultural heritages, I witness Tai Chi around almost every evening as a lot of people are seen practicing this traditional physical exercise. The Chinese believe that Tai Chi can bring them health and peace of mind through its signature slow circular movements.
I have also experienced Acupuncture, another intangible heritage of China, several times in and outside Beijing. It is an important feature of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
While receiving acupuncture treatments, TCM doctors applied needles to puncture and stimulate chosen points on my body. Every time I went through a rollercoaster ride since I felt both pain and relaxed during and after the treatments.
Over the last decade, China has made substantial headway in preserving and carrying forward its cultural heritage in the last decade. The local governments of the country have included the preservation of cultural heritage as an important element in their performance evaluation systems.
The amount of provincial-level cultural relics protection units has increased by 58 percent, and that of municipal and county-level has grown by 88 percent, while tens of thousands of curated or excavated valuable cultural relics have been restored to a better state.
In the implementation of the call of President Xi, Chinese archaeologists have broken new grounds in deep sea archaeological missions. The number of museums nationwide has increased by 60 percent, and massive technological breakthroughs have been made in cultural relics protection.
- Musundali Bhuiyan is a journalist