They have earmarked the second Saturday of June as "the day of cultural heritage". On this day, they release an annual report on the state of protection of Beijing's old districts, and submit it to the Beijing municipal government. According to the center, these reports have been consulted by government organizations such as the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the district planning bureaus.
Zhang and other core members of www.memoryofchina.org have helped several members of the CPPCC National Committee make proposals about heritage protection. These include one on the protection of the Qianmen East area of Beijing by famous writer and artist Feng Jicai, and one on Beijing's old guildhalls by Shan Jixiang, director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.
"Non-government forces will play a decisive role in the protection of China's cultural heritage," says Wang Jun, author of City Records (Cheng Ji), a popular book about the transformation of Beijing in the second half of the 20th century. "Their participation in the protection of cultural heritage is part of the building of a civil society."
By Mu Qian
Editor: Dong Jirong
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