Forty years ago, the UN passed the "World Heritage Convention" to help preserve special natural and cultural sites. Today, China has over forty official heritage sites, ranking it third behind only Italy and Spain.

UNESCO’s World Heritage List recognizes sites of outstanding cultural or natural significance to the common heritage of humanity. In 1987, the Forbidden City and six other Chinese sites were added to the list.

Now, China has 43 official world heritage sites, including 30 cultural, 9 natural and 4 mixed properties. And there are more on the way.

After being nominated by the State Council, the Hani terrace fields in Lijiang city were recently approved to become a UNESCO Cultural Heritage Site in 2013.