11 cities set up union to protect intangible cultural heritage along Yangtze

Eleven cities along the Yangtze River basin signed a cooperative agreement on Sunday to establish a union to better protect intangible cultural heritage along the longest river in China.

The Yangtze River Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Union was established at the Intangible Cultural Heritage Exposition of the Yangtze River in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province. More than 400 intangible cultural heritage projects are displayed at the expo, which will last from Sunday to Tuesday.

The 11 cities include Shanghai, Chongqing, Xining, Lhasa, Kunming, Chengdu, Wuhan, Changsha, Nanchang, Hefei, Nanjing. In addition to founding the union, the 11 cities also signed nine other cooperative agreements.

According to the agreements, the 11 cities will exchange experience on heritage protection, promote talent cultivation, cooperate on research and boost integration of cultural heritage with local industry.

The secretariat of the union is based at the Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Culture.

The founding of the union will help form a long-term mechanism to better intangible cultural heritage protection work across the Yangtze River basin region, said He Wei, head of the Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Culture.

Meanwhile, an official website named Intangible Cultural Heritage of Yangtze, was also launched on Sunday. The website, www.cjfygift.com, provides various content on intangible cultural heritage from background information, to maps and related products for purchase. Endi