More funds likely to protect heritage in private hands

Relics' protection in traditional villages will be the first to benefit from the new government initiative.

"People will thus be encouraged to better safeguard the cultural relics, and more creative channels are being discussed to fill the monetary void," he adds.

According to the heritage administration, the country has 760,000 immovable cultural relic sites that government efforts alone can't protect.

Even so, cultural authorities are working on creating a registry system and database for immovable cultural heritage based on results of a recent nationwide investigation.

"A single general investigation can only give us a panorama, but more specific policies need to be based on supervision of the dynamic changes in the field of cultural heritage," Zhu says.

Experts say new policies in this regard can also work as a stimulus for the booming antiques market.

The government is also emphasizing the protection of intangible cultural heritage.

According to Ma Shengde, a supervisor in the ICH arm of the Culture Ministry, each national-level ICH inheritor will get 20,000 yuan ($3,100) annually in funds from this year onward, double the figure of earlier years.

While the money will be directly given to individuals to avoid lengthy bureaucratic procedures, a supervision mechanism and an annual evaluation process are being introduced to ensure that the funds are used for teaching or toward the inheritance of craftsmanship rather than just meeting the daily expenses of the ICH inheritors.

"The country encourages such inheritors to spread their knowledge of intangible heritage among the people," Ma says. "But they also need to use the money in the right way."