Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level | |||||||
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Temple of Heaven, one from the first batch of Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level | |||||||
Simplified Chinese | 全国重点文物保护单位 | ||||||
Traditional Chinese | 全國重點文物保護單位 | ||||||
Literal meaning | National Key Cultural Relic Protected Unit | ||||||
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A Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level[1][Note 1] (Chinese: 全国重点文物保护单位), often abbreviated as guobao (Chinese: 国保, "nationally protected"), is one of 5,058 monuments listed as of significant historical, artistic or scientific value by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, which is the cultural relics administrative department of the State Council of China. This is the highest level of cultural heritage register in China at the national level, although there are much wider registers of protected sites at the provincial level, the city level, and so on.
As Sites Protected at the National Level are lawfully the monuments with protection of the highest level in China, it is prohibited to damage or demolish them. An approval by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage is required before a potential removal of such sites.[1]
In 1999 it was reported that there were some 350,000 immovable cultural properties in China, of which 70,000 were protected at one of the three main levels, in addition to some 10,000,000 movable cultural properties held by state institutions alone.[2] Of these, as of October 2019, 5,058 Sites Protected at the National Level have been designated by the State Administration. They were announced in 8 batches and several supplemental batches:
Batch No. |
Date | Added | Merged[N 1] | Ref. |
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1 | 4 March 1961 | 180 | [3] | |
1a | 26 October 1964 | −1[N 2] | [4] | |
1b | 16 October 1981 | 1[N 2] | [5] | |
2 | 23 February 1982 | 62 | [6] | |
3 | 13 January 1988 | 258 | [7] | |
4 | 20 November 1996 | 250 | 12 | [8] |
5 | 25 June 2001 | 518 (-1[N 3]) | 23 | [9] |
5a | 22 November 2002 | 1 | [10] | |
5b | 2 March 2003 | 1 | [11] | |
5c | 3 April 2003 | 1 | [12] | |
6 | 25 May 2006 | 1,080 | 106 | [13] |
6a | 20 August 2009 | 1 | [14] | |
7 | 5 March 2013 | 1,943 (+1[N 4]) | 47 | [15][16] |
7a | 25 April 2014 | 1 | [17] | |
8 | 7 October 2019 | 762 | 50 | [18] |
Total | 5,058 |
Sites (to Be) Protected for Their Historical and Cultural Value or Historical and Cultural Sites Protected (文物保护单位) at various levels include:[19]