The Hokkien cultural and ecological protection experimental area covering Quanzhou, Zhangzhou and Xiameng in Fujian province was named among the seven national cultural and ecological protection areas approved by the State Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Dec 25. 

After inspected the construction of national cultural and ecological protection zones in various cities across the country via procedures including declaration, expert review, unannounced visits and social publicity, officials from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism selected the list of qualified ones. 

Apart from the Hokkien cultural and ecological protection experimental area, six other ancient cultural zones such as Huizhou cultural ecological protection area in Anhui province, Regong cultural ecological protection area in Qinghai province and Wuling Mountain Tujia and Miao ethnic cultural ecological protection area in Hunai province also made the list. 

In June 2007, the former Ministry of Culture approved the establishment of the Hokkien cultural and ecological protection experimental area, covering Quanzhou, Xiamen, and Zhangzhou in Fujian province.

Quanzhou was regarded as the core area of the experimental zone. 

In order to maintain the integrity and distinctive features of local cultural heritages, and realize the overall protection of key areas, Quanzhou has formulated Quanzhou implementation plan for the overall plan of ecological protection area. 

According to the plan, Quanzhou city will launch a series of protection projects for the 34 national intangible cultural heritages and 53 intangible cultural inheritance representatives during three periods from 2011 to 2025. 

Quanzhou has currently completed two phases of construction periods and will make efforts to realize the long-term goals of establishing a standardized and legalized cultural and ecological protection system and realizing the digitalized intangible cultural heritage resources.

More than 20 ancient buildings and dwellings in the protected areas are expected to be basically restored in the next five years. Every counties in Quanzhou will build two museums to promote cultural protection. 

National cultural and ecological protection areas refer to the special areas with the main goal of protecting the intangible cultural heritage and various cultural forms with rich historical and cultural value. 

In the Outline of National Cultural Development Planning and National Cultural Protection during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan Period, the State Council proposed the initiative to build 10 national and national folk and cultural ecological protection areas across the country. 

After the experimental stage, each protected area will be officially named "cultural ecological protection area". 

China has approved the establishment of 21 state-level cultural and ecological protection experimental areas, covering 17 provinces such as Fujian and Anhui from 2007 to 2018.

A child appreciate art crafts at the Quanzhou Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum opened in Nov 2019. [Photo/qzwb.com]