By Ding Yasong, Liu Xiaoyu, Wang Yinxin BEIJING, July 5 (People’s Daily) -- The State Council Information Office held a press conference on July 5 to brief on the extended 44th session of the World Heritage Committee. According to the press conference, the session will be held from July 16 to 31 in Fuzhou city, East China's Fujian Province, and UNESCO will review world heritage applications online for the first time. China's cultural heritage application project titled “Quanzhou: China's World Ocean Trade Center in Song Dynasty (960-1279) and Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368)” will be reviewed at the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee this year.

According to His Excellency Mr. Tian Xuejun, Vice Minister of Education and Chairperson of the National Commission of the People’s Republic of China for UNESCO, this session strives to demonstrate unique features in three aspects: the first is innovations of forms. After the opening ceremony, the session will go online, and a series of operating norms established and used by this session for online review of the applications for world heritage listing will become an important yardstick against which the online and offline activities for world heritage events held in the post-pandemic era will be measured. The second is the expected results. This session will review the World Heritage projects for both 2020 and 2021, including 45 projects in the pipeline for the World Heritage List and 258 world heritage state of conservation reports, equal to the previous sessions’ workloads doubled, and various lists including the World Heritage List are expected to see important updates. The third is abundant activities. During this session, a series of related activities and side events will be held during the session, including the World Heritage Young Professionals Forum and the World Heritage Site Managers’ Forum jointly organized by China and UNESCO, as well as 8 side events hosted by China.

Mr. Zheng Jianmin, vice governor of Fujian Province and deputy head of the Fujian provincial preparatory group for the extended 44th session of the World Heritage Committee, said that this session would practice the concepts of "People-centered World Heritage", highlight the characteristics of the "Digital World Heritage", and showcase the charms of the "Green World Heritage".

China now boasts 55 UNESCO World Heritage sites, ranking top in the world tied with Italy.