 
  | 
 
 Models carrying replicas of world cultural 
 heritages over their heads perform at the World Cultural and Natural 
 Heritage Exposition in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province June 
 9, 2007. The show is part of the celebrations on the second Day of 
 Intangible Cultural Heritage. Across the country, various celebrating 
 activities were held to arouse the sense for the protection of tangible 
 and intangible cultural heritages. [Xinhua]
   | 
SHENYANG -- A four-month-long world cultural and natural heritage exposition 
opened Saturday in northeast China's Liaoning Province, as one of the events 
held nationwide to arouse people's awareness of cultural heritage protection. 
The expo, held in Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning, showcases 33Chinese and 
57 foreign World Heritage sites by means of pictures, videos, models and films, 
with an exhibition area of 30,000 square meters. 
Forums, lectures and performances of folk arts will also be held to mark the 
country's Second Cultural Heritage Day, which fell on Saturday to promote public 
awareness of the preservation of cultural diversity and heritage protection, 
according to expo organizers. 
"The expo is most interesting and is in line with one of the principal 
priorities of UNESCO: the safeguarding and protection of world heritage," said 
UNESCO Secretary-General Koichiro Matsuura at the opening ceremony. 
"It will be a welcome opportunity to educate a wide public on world heritage 
conservation," he said. 
Chinese State Councilor Chen Zhili also attended the ceremony. The expo will 
last until October 9. 
China has currently a total of 33 sites inscribed in the World Heritage List 
of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 
(UNESCO), including the Great Wall and the Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries. 
And in Beijing, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited an exhibition of 
intangible cultural heritage in Beijing on Saturday, China's second "Cultural 
Heritage Day". 
During his visit, Wen was particularly interested in live performances -- 
paper-cutting, shadow play and the making of Chinese new year paintings -- all 
by masters of these folk arts. 
"The reason why such legacies have passed on for hundreds or even thousands 
of years is that they carry the spirit of the Chinese nation," Wen said at the 
exhibition, held in the China Millennium Monument. 
"We should not only preserve such cultural legacy, but also pass them on and 
make innovations so that they can last," Wen said, adding we should also learn 
from cultures of other nations. 
Li Changchun, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of 
the Communist Party of China Central Committee, also visited the exhibition on 
Saturday. 
China's "Cultural Heritage Day" falls on the second Saturday of June every 
year. It was established last year by the Chinese government to step up 
protection of fine traditional Chinese culture.