Cherishing our rural heritage

He says he hopes the art workers can help them to better protect and develop the historical villages and inherit local intangible cultural heritages.

Ma Guoxiang, also a member of the CPPCC National Committee, visited Huawu village in April 2018 and was impressed by the beautiful village and the green mountains and rivers there.

"I suggested to save the old houses and decorate them so that the villagers can continue living there and also it can make a contribution to local rural tourism," Ma recalls. Ma has saved more than 1,000 ancient folk-style houses in the past two decades.

"The key to rural cultural vitalization is to dig out the characters of countryside culture and develop local-feature cultural industries or tourist industries," Ma says.

Fan says ancient towns are like villages in cities which need to be well protected.

Speaking about how to better protect ancient dwellings, Fan says it's necessary to draw a map to record all the ancient towns and dwellings after thorough research and investigation.

"We should not only take the ancient dwellings as a mold of ancient times, but also take it as a live space that needs to breathe, so that besides protecting the building itself, we also need to take care of the environment around it for it to produce its real historical and cultural charm," Fan says.

To combine rural cultural tourism with ancient dwellings is also one way to protect them, he adds.

"I'll bring our experienced professors and students to visit Qianxi, to portray the beautiful villages and scenes there and give full play to our professional skills to help with the rural planning, the protection and mapping of the ancient dwellings, as well as the local ethnic handicraft development," Fan says.