Legal Protection For Historic And Cultural Blocks In China

A historical and cultural block refers to a scaled area with rich storage of cultural relics and concentration of historic buildings, which completely and authentically reflects the traditional pattern and historical features and has been approved and announced by the provincial, autonomous or municipal government. The criterion for qualifying historical and cultural blocks includes integrity of historical features, historical authenticity and continuity of social life. Historical and cultural block is part of world cultural heritage and also an important component of the city. Therefore, it is of special significance for protecting historical and cultural blocks.Internationally, there are three basic modes of protecting historical and cultural blocks, namely overall protection mode typically adopted in France, key protection mode in Japan and mode of designated protection boundaries in Italy. At present, there are still many deficiencies in protection of historical and cultural blocks, including: failure in reaching common understanding on protection of historical and cultural blocks by the government and the public; over-exploitation for pursuit of economic interests, resulting in destruction of historical and cultural blocks; backward infrastructure and ineffective law enforcement on protecting historical and cultural blocks.The protection system for historical and cultural blocks in China has undergone three stages, ranging from creation of management documents, to establishment of administrative rules and technical specifications and then to creation of legal and administrative regulations. Through continuous improvement, the Chinese historical and cultural blocks have formed a protection system comprising an evaluation system, protection planning system, public participation system, protection capital system, stimulation system and responsibility system. However, backward protection regulations and structural defects existing in the operation of the protection system have dragged the efficiency of protecting the historical and cultural blocks.In order to improve the protection system for historical and cultural blocks, proposals are presented to set up investigation, registration and classified protection systems, improve and perfect protection planning system, coordinating protection system and public participation system, consolidate protection capital measures and system and establish a reasonable development system.