China's Hubei Shennongjia added to World Heritage List

The 40th session of the World Heritage Committee held in Istanbul on Sunday decided to put China's Hubei Shennongjia on the prestigious World Heritage List as a natural site, bringing to 50 the number of listed Chinese sites.

Shennongjia is considered as a treasure of wildlife renowned with high plant diversity, said a report by the advisory body on China. "Shennongjia has been a place of significant scientific interest particularly for botanists and the mountains have featured prominently in the history of botanical inquiry," part of the report was cited at the meeting.

The meeting was, however, drawn its attention to the potential tourism pressure on the site, as a new airport has been built there. Li Faping, mayor of the Shennongjia Forestry District, while voicing his pleasure at the site's acceptance into the heritage list by a unanimous consensus, pledged a better conservation just like "caring for our own eyes." China's Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art Cultural Landscape was placed on the list on Friday as a cultural site.

The World Heritage Committee, a panel under the UN cultural agency UNESCO, resumed its current session on Sunday following one-day suspension imposed after the outbreak of a coup attempt in Turkey Friday night.

Dominating Sunday's meeting is a review of the nominations of the remaining 18 sites to the World Heritage List, as it examined and decided on Friday to inscribe nine others nominated for this year. Sunday morning saw four new sites placed on the World Heritage List, which are the architectural work of Le Corbusier in Argentina, Belgium, France, Germany, India, Japan and Switzerland, Antigua Naval Dockyard and related archaeological sites in Antigua and Barbuda, Pampulha Modern Ensemble in Brazil, and Khangchendzonga National Park in India.

The World Heritage Committee is set to end its 40th session on Sunday evening, cutting short its duration by three days. The panel was formed in 1977 to enforce the World Heritage Convention and manage the heritage list created based on the convention.