Beijing's axis joins history to the future

"My mother says that the tide of time flows nonstop, much like the three generations of my family, leaving the small mountain village to settle in Beijing. This is our story and also a microcosm of our country's development."

She was awarded as a young ambassador at the competition's award ceremony, and her brother was chosen as one of the first batch of advocates for the Beijing Central Axis Protection Foundation.

To raise awareness about the value of Beijing's Central Axis and encourage more people from all walks of life to engage in its protection, the Beijing Cultural Heritage Bureau and the Beijing Office for Conservation and Management of the Beijing Central Axis have been co-hosting this competition since 2021.

This year's contest set up five major categories: renovation, art, design, ambassadorship and digitization. These are then further divided into 12 sections.

All sections invite people from any age group or nationality with an interest in Beijing's Central Axis to promote relevant cultural heritage in creative formats, such as renovation plans for old buildings, original music pieces and artworks, cultural merchandise design and re-creations of the sites using digital technologies.

According to the competition committee, the contest attracted 80,357 works this year with participants coming from all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China, as well as 13 other countries.

The participants' ages span from 5 to 83, and young people born in the 2000s and 2010s account for over 80 percent of competitors.

Of the group contestants, one team from the Beijing Language and Culture University provided a particularly diverse scene, with international students from 13 countries participating in the contest's music section.