52 World Heritage Wonders — China Ranks Among Top Nations with Most Sites

By MOOK Scenic Spots Home Jun(e), compiled and reported

World heritage is wonderfully diverse. In addition to nature’s masterpieces, human cultural legacies are equally breathtaking. At the recent UNESCO World Heritage Committee session in Krakow, Poland, China successfully had two nominations — "Gulangyu: a Historic International Settlement" and "Hoh Xil" — inscribed on the World Heritage List. This brings China’s total number of World Heritage sites to 52, tying with Italy’s 53 and making both countries the nations with the most World Heritage sites globally.

Located in Xiamen, Fujian, Gulangyu has become a popular travel destination in recent years. With over 900 historical buildings and cultural relics, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) noted that the architecture on Gulangyu blends Chinese, Southeast Asian, and European styles with local traditional cultural elements, giving rise to a unique architectural style known as "Amoy Deco Style."

Hoh Xil is located in the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, known as the “Third Pole” of the world. The nominated area includes vast mountain and grassland systems at elevations above 4,500 meters. Hoh Xil contains the densest concentration of lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, along with highly diverse lake basins and high-altitude inland lake landforms.