A cultural relics protection training class, held by Shanxi's provincial cultural relics bureau and Italy's Senior Research Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Renovation, was opened on March 17, in Taiyuan University of Technology, Shanxi province.
According to Liu Zhenghui, deputy director of Shanxi's bureau, it was the first time that local cultural relics authorities had joined hands with a foreign heritage conservation institution to start a training class, showing communication in technology and ideas about conserving cultural relics between Shanxi province and foreign countries.
It is a program aiming at preserving relics and carried out on the basis of cooperation framework agreements and special arrangements between the Shanxi bureau and Italian institute.
A group of nine experts from Italy arrived in Shanxi to give lectures to 60 students in this class for four weeks, including theories on ancient building protection and renovation, structural analysis of architectures and intervention for wooden architecture, xylology, manufacturing technologies of wood architecture, common defects in wooden components, conditions of cultural relics protection and restoration, and intervention of cultural relics.
Shanxi province now has a great number of ancient buildings, which makes the protection work more challenging. Liu said he hopes that through this training, the construction of a provincial cultural relic protection project team can be enhanced and the quality of personnel involved in protection work can be improved. By learning and understanding the advanced knowledge and skills of developed countries in terms of cultural relics conservation, more qualified personnel can be trained and developed to promote cultural relics protection work in the province and elevate it to a new level.
Edited by Brian Salter
