Heritage for the future

Culturally rich provinces have to strike the right balance between preserving sites and relics and making money

China may have the second highest entry on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list, but it is still in the primary stages of protecting its cultural heritage sites and relics and faces many problems in preserving them.

For example, the Old Town of Lijiang in Yunnan province, home to the Naxi ethnic group and their unique culture, is on the World Cultural Heritage list. But the Naxi culture seems to be dwindling. The influx of outsiders into Lijiang may be partly to blame for that. Many Naxi people have rented their houses (in many cases to non-Naxi people and foreigners) and moved out of the town, dealing a blow to their traditional culture.