Turning the tide on vanishing village life

According to the third annual China National Conference on Historic Villages, traditional Chinese villages are vanishing at an alarming rate due to human or natural factors.

Over the decade from 2000 to 2010, the number of ancient villages dropped sharply from 3.6 million to 2.7 million. As of last year, a total of 1.6 million villages had disappeared across China, and this number is continuing to decline at an average rate of 1.6 per day.

With the purpose of raising people's awareness about this social phenomenon and the preciousness of traditional Chinese village culture, a forum was held in Beijing on May 14.