The International Forum on Chinese Traditional Villages was held in Baoding, Hebei province, from Nov 22 to 23, with nearly a hundred experts and scholars in attendance. They discussed the protection of traditional villages, research on native people and the future development of traditional villages in China.

The forum focused on finding a scientific and rational method to promote heritage protection and to realize community development of Chinese traditional villages.

The International Forum on Chinese Traditional Villages opens on Nov 22 at Baoding, Hebei province. [Photo/Tianjin University]

Feng Jicai, vice-president of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and director of the China's Traditional Village Protection and Development Research Center, delivered a speech on the current condition of traditional village protection in China.

He said the protection is facing a new problem -- villages are becoming more and more similar to each other. For example, they are tending to plan for tourism instead of protection, force the local people to leave their hometown, open stores to sell souvenirs, construct man-made landscapes and make up folk stories only to attract tourists.

The loss of cultural specialties signals the failure of village protection.

Feng Jicai delivers a speech on current traditional village protection in China. [Photo/Tianjin University]

Feng stressed that village heritages should hold their own features and a scientific method needs to be figured out to better protect old villages and promote their culture through tourism industries in a correct way.

Rudolf Lückmann, vice president of the Monument Council in Germany, offered an example of Germany’s approach.

He said that the lifestyles, farming methods and crop production of ancient villages are on display in museums, through which visitors can learn and experience the local way of living.

Meanwhile, the German government has put forward special regulations on village protection to guarantee a good environment where applicable.

The forum was sponsored by the China's Traditional Village Protection and Development Research Center at Tianjin University, the School of Journalism and Communication at Hebei University of China and Tianjin Dayi Environment Landscape Design Co. Ltd.