Govt to evaluate city's immobile cultural relics every five years

The city's immobile cultural relics will be evaluated every five years so the local cultural heritage authority can determine whether a site still qualifies as a relic in terms of its historical, artistic and scientific value, local media reported Wednesday.

The measure was added to the draft of a local implementation rule of the Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics in China Wednesday morning, according to a report on the news portal eastday.com.

The draft stated that the authority could upgrade the status of an immobile cultural relic to an important heritage site under State protection or it could downgrade it to having no protective status at all, the report said. Any status changes would depend on the rediscovery of the value of a site due to the advancement of technology, the total number of such sites, poor maintenance and damages caused by natural weathering.

The measure is related to giving the immobile cultural relics in the city due protection according to their different grades and categories. So far, Shanghai has 4,422 immobile cultural relics, among which 29 are important national heritage sites and 154 are heritage sites under the city's protection.

More than 3,000 sites are modern or contemporary buildings, most of which are still in use. The draft divided the protection measures into three major categories according to their age, architectural features and specified renovation requirements, the report said.

Under most circumstances, architectural facades, structural and space patterns and the original décor are not allowed to be changed to preserve their value, the report said.