China News Service, Beijing, September 22. Title: "Systemic protection" paves a new path for cultural heritage inheritance
China News Service reporters Zhou Zhaojun, Lu Shaowei and Xu Jing
In September of the golden autumn, the cultural context of the ancient capital Beijing is stirring, and the 2026 Beijing Cultural Forum has arrived as scheduled. With the permanent theme of "Inheritance·Innovation·Mutual Learning" and the annual theme of "Cultural Heritage and Mutual Learning of Civilizations", the forum brought together about 600 Chinese and foreign guests to discuss plans for the protection and inheritance of cultural heritage and to draw a new scene for exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations. This is not only a cultural event that attracts global attention, but also an in-depth dialogue between ancient civilization and the modern world, and a collision between Eastern wisdom and global vision.
Cultural heritage protection is never an isolated "cultural relic rescue", but a systematic project embedded in the overall urban development. As a world-famous historical and cultural city with a history of more than 3,000 years as a city and more than 870 years as a capital, Beijing is the core place of Chinese civilization. This forum takes "systematic protection of cultural heritage" as the core topic, which is a summary and sublimation of Beijing's years of cultural heritage protection and inheritance practice.
Driven by the successful application of Beijing's central axis as a World Cultural Heritage, the "Beijing Central Axis World Cultural Heritage Protection Regulations" set a rigid rule of law for the protection of the 7.8-kilometer "backbone of the ancient capital"; the construction of the three major cultural belts of the Great Wall, the Grand Canal, and the Yongding River in Xishan has been advanced in depth, and key projects such as the archaeology of the Liuli River site and the repair of the Yongding Gate Tower have been successively implemented. Beijing has established a comprehensive and systematic protection pattern of "points, lines, and planes" coordinated linkage.
How to balance the urbanization process and the protection of old cities is a common question faced by global urban development. Looking east, over the years, Beijing has abandoned the extensive renovation logic of large-scale demolition and large-scale construction, and has promoted micro-renovation and micro-improvement using hutongs and courtyards as units: Yuer Hutong, Caochang Sitiao Hutong and other historical blocks have retained their traditional texture while updating modern life. Living facilities have allowed old residents to retain their homesickness and live a livable life; Shichahai and the Bell and Drum Tower areas have continued to promote business renovation and style control, so that historical districts are no longer "commercial specimens" but a living community with both fireworks and culture. This concept of "seeing people, seeing things, seeing life" is the deep-seated essence of systematic protection - cultural heritage has never been a "stumbling block" to urbanization, but the cultural foundation for urban development and the spiritual background of citizens' lives.
If systematic protection preserves the "body" of cultural heritage, then literary and artistic creation awakens the "soul" of cultural heritage. This forum focuses on the topic of "Cultural Heritage and Literary and Artistic Creation", sending a clear signal - cultural heritage is the "rich mine" for literary and artistic creation, and excellent literary and artistic creation can in turn activate the contemporary value of cultural heritage, allowing dormant cultural relics and ancient techniques to truly "live" in the spiritual world of the public.
The future of cultural heritage ultimately lies in the hands of young people. Today, the creativity of young people is being unleashed infinitely through new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). At this forum, young people are no longer "spectators" of cultural heritage, but the "main force" deeply involved in the entire chain of protection, research, and dissemination. They are using cutting-edge technology as a pen to write a new chapter for the protection and inheritance of cultural heritage.
On the front line of conservation research, young research teams use multidisciplinary applications to greatly improve the quality and efficiency of cultural relic restoration and other work; in the Badaling Great Wall digital conservation project, young engineers established digital archives for the city wall and relied on sensors and AI algorithms to monitor risks such as weathering and subsidence in real time, giving the ancient Great Wall a "digital health steward."
On the communication and transformation side, young creators use new technologies to reconstruct the way the public “encounters” cultural heritage. On social platforms, young cultural bloggers and archeology students use videos to record cultural heritage protection sites and restore traditional craft processes, driving youth cultural crazes such as Citywalk and museum check-ins, and achieving "circle-breaking" communication overseas.
From systematic protection to solve the development problems of urbanization and old city protection, to literary and artistic creation to realize the contemporary translation of the spiritual core of cultural heritage, to young people working with new technologies to open up revitalized inheritance and transmission paths, the 2026 Beijing Cultural Forum shows a three-dimensional, complete, and future-oriented cultural heritage protection and inheritance system. It confirms that cultural heritage is not a static "past tense", but a dynamic "present continuous tense" and a "future tense" containing infinite possibilities; the protection and inheritance is not a lonely struggle of a few people, but a cultural process in which the whole society participates.
Protect roots with systems, build consensus with creations, and inspire vitality with youth. Standing at a new historical node, Beijing is using cultural heritage as a link to connect the past, present and future, and also to connect China and the world. This "Beijing experience" accumulated in practice will not only help the ancient capital's cultural heritage be passed down from generation to generation, but also contribute Eastern wisdom to global cultural heritage protection and mutual learning among civilizations.
