China, CIS countries to seek heritage status for Silk Road

BEIJING: China and Central Asian countries will jointly apply for world cultural heritage status for the historical sites along the 2000-year old Silk Road, a senior Chinese cultural official said on Thursday.

"An action plan will be made for the joint application," deputy director of the State Cultural Heritage Administration Tong Mingkang said at an ongoing international convention held in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Under the plan, countries along the ancient Silk Road will take measures to protect cultural relics, improve the environment at the sites, and carry out a promotion campaign, Tong said.

The ancient Silk Road was mainly a trade route linking Asia and Europe. It began from the city of Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, and ended in Europe via south and Central Asian countries.

It was 7,000 kilometres long, more than half of which was in China.

The four-day convention, held in the city of Turpan, attracted more than 50 experts and heritage officials from UNESCO and China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan which are expected to make the joint application.