ABSTRACT
As a hotspot problem in the heritage protection field, Cultural Routes research started at the expert meeting with the theme of “Routes as Part of our Cultural Routes” held in Spain in 1994. Then the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Cultural Routes (CIIC) was established for the research of Cultural Routes Heritage in 1998. In the
1 INTRODUCTION
On June 29, 2012, The Site of Xanadu was listed in the UNESCO World Heritage List at the 34th World Heritage Committee meeting. It was since 1988 that Xanadu had begun applying for World Cultural Heritage, as one of the third category of the national key cultural relics protection units announced by the State Council of China. Then it was added into the Preparatory Directory for World Cultural Heritages of China in 1996, and designated again in the Preparatory Directory reenacted by the state bureau of cultural relics in 2006. Finally, Xanadu was voted to be listed formally as a world heritage site in the World Heritage Committee meeting hold in Russia in June, 2012. However, it should be noted that it was via the associated application with the Site of Zhongdu (Zhangbei, Hebei Province) that Xanadu was included both in the Preparatory Directory in 1996 and the one reenacted in 2006. Although Zhongdu had no chance to be declared, its close connection
2005 version of Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention (World Heritage Center, 2005), Cultural Route, as an important component of Heritage Routes, was included in World Heritage List. ICOMOS Charter on Cultural Routes (ICOMOS, 2008), enacted at the 16th ICOMOS meeting in 2008, illuminated its content, value and significance comprehensively and systematically. By this time, a relatively perfect theoretical system of Cultural Routes had formed as a new type of heritage recognized in the World Heritage field.
