China Principles

China’s cultural heritage faces conservation challenges from economic development, social mobility, changing mores, and increasing tourism.

This collaborative project developed first-ever national guidelines for conservation and management of Chinese heritage, disseminated them widely through publications and training, and applied them at two World Heritage sites, the Mogao Grottoes in Gansu Province and the Imperial Mountain Resort at Chengde. The project also assisted in the guidelines’ revision based on lessons learned from real-world applications.

• A formal English translation of the China Principles, including extensive commentary and a Chinese-English glossary, was completed by the Conservation Institute in 2002. Revisions by SACH and China ICOMOS followed in 2013, with a final translation into English made in 2015.
• An internal conference was organized by the State Administration for Cultural Heritage in October 2000 to formally announce and discuss the Principles, and a workshop to begin the process of dissemination was organized in Beijing in April 2001.
• In 2006 dissemination workshops were held in Australia and China to lay the groundwork for future teaching of the master planning process and conservation principles, followed by formal training in 2007.
• The 2004 symposium “The Persistence of Tradition: Monuments and Preservation in Late Imperial and Modern China” brought together scholars from various disciplines to address how cultural heritage has been invented, valued, and managed in late-imperial, modern, and contemporary China.
• Conservation of Shuxiang Temple at Chengde, which has allowed the structure to continue to serve as an authentic witness to a lost past.
• Application of the Principles at the World Heritage site of the Mogao Grottoes resulted in development of a comprehensive master plan and a demonstrated use of the plan, as well as training and a visitor management plan.
• The 2009 workshop “Advancing Sustainable Tourism at Natural and Cultural Heritage Sites” brought together representatives from twenty-one countries to discuss tourism at World Heritage sites in relation to potential changes in the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention.
• The 2013 international colloquium “Visitor Management and Carrying Capacity at World Heritage Sites in China” addressed visitor management challenges at Mogao.

China is a country of exceptional diversity with a population of over 1.3 billion in an area roughly the size of the United States. The country has a long, rich history with an almost unbroken cultural tradition extending back some 5,000 years. Its cultural heritage sites record the formation and development of the nation. Yet despite an outstanding cultural legacy and a long tradition of conservation and restoration practice, no guidelines for conservation and management of cultural heritage had been developed. The aim of the China Principles project was to develop such guidelines.

China’s State Administration for Cultural Heritage, Dunhuang Academy, Chengde Cultural Heritage Bureau