Heritage value
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Intangible historical value is at the heart of cultural heritage conservation. Tourism, on the other hand, is all about making profits.
Therefore, cultural relics and sites must be protected from being exploited for tourist dollars, writes an 88-year-old cultural heritage protection expert, in a letter to Premier Wen Jiabao.
Most TV programs on China's cultural heritage talk about how much money a particular relic is worth, and seldom about its historical value, he says.
Protection of cultural heritage hits a dead end the moment listed companies - with travel firms holding majority shares - start running these sites of historical interest on a for-profit basis. It is unwise to expect such enterprises, whose goal is to make money, to show restraint while exploiting the potential of these cultural relics. Bluntly put, sites of historical value must never be run as a business solely to make profits. Their historical importance will be irretrievably lost the moment they are destroyed or damaged.
Yet, there have been instances when some local governments have used cultural sites to maximize revenue, allowing tourism ventures to run them in order to spur local economic growth.
The plan to turn the Shaolin Temple - a well-known Buddhist monastery long associated with Chinese martial arts such as kungfu - into a listed company is a case in point.
Protection must be the watchword for sites of historical interest like the Shaolin Temple.
Pursuing short-term profits from tourism without any limits will be detrimental to the preservation of our cultural heritage.
