The regional government of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region recently held a conference to hear a report from the Bayannur municipal government regarding the Yinshan rock paintings' application for world cultural heritage and to study and determine relevant matters toward the application.

The conference agreed to establish a regional leading group for the Yinshan rock painting's application for world cultural heritage and also to establish a joint leading coordination group for northern rock inscriptions and the world cultural heritage application with China's Northern provinces and regions, such as Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Related departments are required to report the situation to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage as soon as possible and make full efforts for the inclusion of the Yinshan rock paintings in the candidate list of world cultural heritage applications. The conference also asked Bayannur municipal government to study and formulate the overall plan for the Yinshan rock paintings and arrange the initial funds for the application.

The Yinshan rock paintings are mainly distributed in the Yinshan Mountains within the city of Bayannur. They have witnessed the Stone Age, the New Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age and a total of 153 rock painting groups and more than 50,000 rock paintings have been discovered so far, and the total number of rock paintings ranks first worldwide. The Yinshan rock paintings possess a relatively high academic value and were affirmed as the major cultural heritage site to be protected at the national level in 2006.

By People's Daily Online