Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has made a series of important instructions and overall arrangements from the strategic height of retaining cultural roots and safeguarding the soul of the nation to promote the protection of cultural and natural heritage.

In June 2017, CPC Central Committee General Secretary Xi Jinping made an instruction on the building of a cultural belt along the Grand Canal: "The Grand Canal is precious heritage passed down to us by our ancestors and is flowable culture that should be protected, inherited and utilized."

Answering Xi's call for "protecting and promoting brilliant traditional Chinese culture and preserving the historical context," archeologists have completed an archaeological survey of cultural relics throughout the Xiongan New Area as well as the archaeological exploration and trial excavation of 50 ancient sites and tombs in the 100 square km initial development zone of the area.

On the protection of the ancient city of Zhengding in Hebei Province, Xi stressed upholding the correct concept in terms of ancient city protection, that is, protecting its historical and cultural values.

During an inspection tour in Beijing, Xi pointed out that history and culture are the soul of a city and people should cherish the city's historical and cultural heritage as their own lives.

When the general secretary visited the Xi'an Museum in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, the first issue of concern to him was the protection of the Small Wild Goose Pagoda. He said the principle of "restoring as it was" should be upheld in ancient building protection.

At Gusheng Village in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Xi noted that in the building of a new countryside, attention must be paid to "preserving local flavor and style, rural landscape, green mountains and clear waters, and letting nostalgia set in."

When visiting Xiguan, a traditional cultural area in Guangzhou, Xi walked into the Cantonese Opera Art Museum and encouraged opera fans to carry forward Cantonese Opera.

During a tour of the northwestern province of Qinghai in August 2016, Xi visited the provincial environmental monitoring center. Speaking through the videophone system, Xi asked about the management and protection of the ecological resources in the Sanjiangyuan region or the source of China's three major rivers.

In July 2018, Xi presided over the third meeting of the central committee for deepening overall reform, at which a guideline on strengthening reform on the protection and use of cultural relics was approved.

Participants at the meeting noted that strengthening the reform on the protection and utilization of cultural relics is of great significance to the preservation and inheritance of China's cultural heritage.

"The formulation of the document has an epoch-making significance to the reform and innovation of the cultural relic work," said Liu Yuzhu, head of the National Cultural Heritage Administration.