Chengdu event promotes 20th-century Chinese architectural heritage

Shiping No.1 Middle School in Yunnan province It may surprise many to learn that the Sydney Opera House in Australia, built in 1973, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007 when it was barely 40 years old. Chinese Cultural Relics Society and the Architectural Society of China unveiled the eighth batch of the 20th-century architectural heritage sites, numbering 101, that they had discovered in China’s 24 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions on September 16 at Sichuan University in Chengdu, Sichuan province. The two academic bodies, keeping up with the international trend in protecting 20th-century architectural heritage, have been collaborating closely in the last eight years, travelling across the country to survey and identify China’s architectural masterworks made in the last century. So far they have identified and published 798 Chinese 20th-century architectural heritage sites, including factories, railroads, hotels, restaurants, and university campuses. Jin Lei, secretary general of the committee on 20th-century architectural heritage of the Chinese Cultural Relics Society, said the eighth batch of the 20th-century architectural heritage sites, like the previous batches, are inseparable from the historical context of New China’s construction.