21 Traditional Villages in Chongqing Listed as Protection and Development Projects

Chongqing - Recently, 21 traditional villages in Chongqing were listed as protection and development projects in 2022, which are expected to get 119 million yuan of Chongqing Municipal subsidies for the protection, renovation, and comprehensive development, in a plan released by the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-rural Development.

Traditional villages refer to villages with tangible and intangible cultural heritage, usually honored as "museums" of folk culture ecology and "living fossils" of rural history and culture. The villages have high historical, cultural, scientific, artistic, social, and economic values.

Up to now, 110 villages in Chongqing have been collected in the traditional Chinese villages catalog, and 75 villages have been included in the list of Chongqing traditional villages for protection. In addition, Chongqing has built 18 municipal demonstration sites to protect and develop traditional villages.

To push forward the protection of these traditional villages, the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-rural Development and the Chongqing Municipal Finance Bureau proposed establishing a traditional village database. As a result, the villages in question will be given three corresponding types of support, including rescue and protection, renovation and upgrading, and integrated development.

The projects listed in the plan were rigorously selected with strict procedures, from the declaration by districts and counties to evaluation by experts and municipal departments. They will expedite the protection and transformation according to the three types mentioned above.

The 21 traditional villages are scheduled to implement reservation and renovation from 2022 to 2023, focusing on upgrading traditional dwellings, equipping them with firefighting facilities, and preserving historical relics.

(Chen Lu, as an intern, also contributed to the report.)