China is working for adding three historical sites, including the imperial palace, imperial mausoleum and tombs for nobles belonging to the ancient Gaogouli regime, to the World Cultural Heritage List of UNESCO at an international heritage conference to be held in late June.

The other two sites are the three imperial mausoleums dedicated to first and second emperors and the two empresses of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), as well as to the ancestors of the emperors, all of which are in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province, and the Shenyang Imperial Palace of the early Qing Dynasty, according to Wang Damin with the World Heritage Section of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

The cultural relics of the Gaogouli regime are located inside the present-day Jilin Province, northeast China.

While addressing a recent youth forum on world heritage, Wang said they would do promotions on the three historical sites at the 28th conference of the World Heritage Committee slated for June 28-July 7 in Suzhou, a scenic city in Jiangsu Province, east China.

Wang said they would work harder to place more historical sites in China on the UNESCO world cultural heritage list in the years to come, including the historical architecture in Macao, the ruins of the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th centuries BC) in Anyang City of Henan Province, and the round earth castles known as "Tulou," traditional homes built by the Hakka people in Fujian Province.

A total of 177 nations, including China, have signed into the Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage and on the list are 754 places all over the world, of which 29 sites are in China.
 
(China Daily May 12, 2004)