BEIJING, July 29 (Xinhua) -- For generations, porcelain makers in Jingdezhen have worked through a sequence of highly specialized tasks: preparing clay, shaping vessels, painting designs, applying glaze, and firing kilns.
Those skills remain an integral part of daily life in the eastern Chinese city. Now, the places where the craft evolved over centuries have gained international recognition.
The Jingdezhen Handicraft Porcelain Industry Sites were added to UNESCO's World Heritage List on July 25, filling a long-standing gap in the list for porcelain heritage and becoming China's 61st World Heritage site.
The latest addition reflects both China's decades-long commitment to preserving cultural heritage and a broader vision in which heritage protection is increasingly integrated into national development, cultural preservation and international exchanges.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed the importance of protecting cultural and natural heritage. He has made heritage conservation a recurring theme during inspection tours across the country, emphasizing that protection should come first and that history, culture and nature should be treated with respect.
In 2016, Xi outlined principles that have since guided the country's heritage nomination efforts. He said candidate projects should help showcase the historical and cultural value of Chinese civilization, embody the aspirations of the Chinese nation, and present an authentic and comprehensive picture of both ancient and modern China.
The approach is reflected in China's World Heritage inscriptions, including the 5,000-year-old Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City, which provide evidence of an early Chinese civilization; Beijing's 700-year-old Central Axis, an enduring expression of traditional urban planning; and the Xixia Imperial Tombs, a vast burial complex that bears witness to cultural exchanges and integration along the Silk Roads from the 11th to 13th centuries.
The road to World Heritage status often requires years of preparation and difficult trade-offs between preservation and development.
The experience of the Liangzhu ruins in east China's Zhejiang Province serves as a case in point.
In the early 2000s, the site was surrounded by noisy mining operations, with industrial dust and blasting leaving the area, in the words of one local official, "something like a war zone."
After becoming aware of the situation in July 2003, Xi, then Party secretary of Zhejiang, called for stronger efforts to protect the site, and promoted measures to halt mining activities. As part of broader preservation efforts in the years that followed, a highway project was rerouted to avoid the site -- an adjustment that increased both distance and cost but ultimately helped preserve the integrity of the heritage area.
Such efforts reflect a principle repeatedly emphasized in China's heritage work: putting protection first and adhering to authenticity and minimum-intervention standards.
The same approach has been applied across the country. In Beijing, the idea that "the old city can no longer be torn down" has become a guiding principle for heritage-linked urban policy. City authorities used the Central Axis nomination as a lever to relocate occupants from key cultural relic sites, overhaul the surrounding environment and advance conservation of the old city as a whole.
As a result, traditional hutong alleyways were preserved, siheyuan courtyard homes were restored, and longtime residents were able to remain in place, rather than being displaced by redevelopment.
China is also using digital technology to protect sites that are particularly vulnerable to environmental damage and heavy visitor traffic.
At the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang in northwest China's Gansu Province, researchers have created high-resolution digital records of murals, painted sculptures and cave structures. The archive now contains more than 600 terabytes of data generated through digital imaging and three-dimensional reconstruction.
While digital archives cannot replace physical relics, they can support research, track deterioration and provide public access without placing additional pressure on fragile works of art.
The growing prominence of heritage has also brought economic benefits.
Nationwide, nearly 15,000 workshops built around intangible cultural heritage crafts have been established as part of broader rural revitalization efforts, officials say, supporting employment and income for more than 1.3 million people.
At World Heritage sites such as Jiuzhaigou, Wulingyuan and the karst landscapes around Guilin, tourism revenue now accounts for more than half of local GDP.
Museums have followed a similar trajectory: by the end of 2025, China had more than 7,000 registered museums, drawing a combined 1.56 billion visits that year.
China's heritage strategy is also linked to international cooperation.
In a congratulatory letter to the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee in 2021, Xi noted that the world's cultural and natural heritage is an important outcome of the development of human civilization and natural evolution, and an important vehicle for the exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations.
China has long cooperated with international heritage organizations in areas such as conservation research, digital technology and capacity building.
The country has also actively participated in joint heritage projects, including the successful multinational nomination of the Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor, undertaken together with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
For Xi, heritage protection is not simply about preserving the past, but also about ensuring continuity for future generations.
In 2017, after the Gulangyu historic international settlement was added to the World Heritage List, Xi stressed the need to learn from international experience, improve long-term mechanisms and carefully protect the cultural heritage left by previous generations so that historical traditions can be better carried forward.
Back in Jingdezhen, the UNESCO inscription may have changed the international status of the city's historic porcelain sites. It has not changed the basic rhythm of the craft.
Preserving that tradition will depend not only on protecting old workshops and kiln remains, but also on whether the knowledge they embody can continue to be practiced and passed on.
For Jingdezhen, joining the World Heritage List is not a final destination but the beginning of a new chapter, one in which a centuries-old industry continues to thrive in a rapidly modernizing city. ■
