The Regulations on the Conservation of Beijing Central Axis Cultural Heritage and the Conservation and Management Plan for Beijing Central Axis (2022-2035) have been enacted to protect the nominated property area of Beijing Central Axis and its buffer zone.

Regulations on the Conservation of Beijing Central Axis Cultural Heritage

The People’s Government of Beijing Municipality
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The nominated components of Beijing Central Axis are strictly protected and managed on the basis of international documents, laws and regulations, and departmental rules corresponding to their protective designations. The Regulations on the Conservation of Beijing Central Axis Cultural Heritage, approved and issued on May 25, 2022, by the Standing Committee of Beijing Municipal People’s Congress, and implemented from October 1, 2022, is a local legislation formulated especially for the integrated protection of the nominated components of Beijing Central Axis and their settings.

The Regulations also establishes the statutory status of the Conservation and Management Plan for Beijing Central Axis (2022-2035) as well as the procedure for its formulation, approval, and announcement, proposes conservation measures tailored to various types of protected properties, implements compulsory conservation requirements in the conservation and management plan, proposes multiple policies and requirements to facilitate heritage conservation, transmission, and public participation, and eventually specifies the legal obligations for and penalties for the wrongdoing of various stakeholders of the property.

Conservation and Management Plan for Beijing Central Axis

The People’s Government of Beijing Municipality
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The Conservation and Management Plan for Beijing Central Axis (2022-2035) (Conservation and Management Plan, for short) is one of the necessary documents for the Beijing Central Axis’s nomination for entry into the World Heritage List. It is an inherent requirement to effectively protect the authenticity and integrity of the Beijing Central Axis cultural heritage. The Conservation and Management Plan’s compilation is the fundamental requirement by the Regulations on the Protection of Cultural Heritage along the Central Axis of Beijing and an important starting point for implementing the detailed regulatory plan for the functional core area of the capital. The Conservation and Management Plan’s goal is to preserve and inherit the heritage value of the Beijing Central Axis, maintain its integrity and authenticity, and improve the quality of its protection and management to promote the overall preservation and revival of Beijing’s Old City. The Conservation and Management Plan was reviewed and approved by the executive meeting of the Beijing Municipal People’s Government on December 27, 2022.

The Conservation and Management Plan deeply explores the heritage’s value and continues improving its integrity. The plan focuses on the outstanding universal value of the heritage in view of the characteristics of the heritage’s diversity of types and shapes and the multitude of its spatial points. By rationally demarcating conservation zones, clarifying conservation management requirements, and formulating conservation management measures, it is ensured that the heritage value features can be fully protected and continuously strengthened.

The Conservation and Management Plan strives to protect the heritage’s authenticity and maintain its special features. From a grand historical perspective, we must understand the heritage, respect the whole process of historical development, protect and display the historical relics and evolution imprints left by the Beijing Central Axis and its surroundings in different eras, maintain the typical characteristics of the differences in each section of the Beijing Central Axis, and fully demonstrate its multicultural charm.

The Conservation and Management Plan gives full play to the comprehensive benefits of heritage conservation to promote the overall protection of Beijing’s Old City. We will fully consider the close relationship of dependence between the Beijing Central Axis and the Old City. Through heritage conservation, we will strive to achieve multiple goals: maximizing the optimization of the area’s functions, improving people’s lives, and bettering the environment to promote the sound interaction between the inside and outside of the heritage protection area and the overall conservation of the Old City.

The Conservation and Management Plan guides the whole society to participate in protecting the Beijing Central Axis heritage. Because of the complex management levels of the constituent elements of the Beijing Central Axis, a large number of relevant stakeholders, and the wide range of social concerns, the plan improves the heritage protection management system and related mechanisms to enhance the efficiency of the whole society’s participation in heritage protection and ultimately achieve the long-term goal of effective conservation and management.

The Conservation and Management Plan rallies more technical support and continuously improves heritage conservation management. In response to the requirement for conservation management on a regular basis, the plan calls for more effort to build a supporting system and proposes to create heritage-monitoring and information-archiving systems, continuously promote research on major projects, and deepen the understanding of the Beijing Central Axis and Old City to provide a solid foundation for protecting and managing the heritage.