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UNESCO sites certified

The National Commission of the People's Republic of China for UNESCO recently presented official certificates to five cultural and natural sites added to World Heritage List in the past three years. The five sites are Fujian Tulou (enclosed and fortified earth buildings in Fujian province), Kaiping Diaolou and Villages (multi-storeyed defensive village houses in Kaiping, Guangdong province), South China Karst, Mount Wutai and Mount Sanqingshan National Park in Jiangxi province.

Fujian Tulou is the most recently listed cultural site. It consists of 46 buildings built in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). In ancient times, tulou accommodated an entire clan. The compound represents the typical architecture of the Hakka people, a subgroup of ethnic Han who inhabit southern China. China has 38 sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List, the third most in the world.