Ruins of St. Paul's
Counting with the total support of the Central Government, the “Historic Centre of Macao” was inscribed on the World Heritage List with unanimous support during the 29th Session of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee on 15 July 2005, thus becoming the 31st World Heritage site in China. The inscription is a profound and momentous achievement for the Macao SAR after its handover to China. On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the inscription of the Historic Centre of Macao on the World Heritage List this year, the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from its Portuguese acronym) seeks to spread the spirit of “Protecting and Appreciating Our World Heritage Together” through a variety of celebratory activities, thereby introducing to the public the connection between world heritage and their daily lives.
Nearly 30 celebratory activities proceeded smoothly and received an enthusiastic response from the public, including the “World Heritage Open Day”, “Heritage City Tours – Guided Tours and Illustration Workshop”, the “Fun Sharing Cultural Heritage” lectures, a story-writing competition and a WeChat game. Among the activities, the story-writing competition received a total of nearly 400 entries; the world heritage exploration activities, such as the “World Heritage Open Day” and the “Heritage City Tours – Guided Tours and Illustration Workshop”, received nearly 4,200 registrations; and the thematic festival held last weekend in a boisterous atmosphere recorded over 5,300 visitors. In conjunction with IC’s anti-epidemic arrangements and crowd control measures, the public participated in the activities in an enthusiastic yet orderly manner. These activities allowed the public to have a better understanding of the city’s cultural heritage and cultural heritage protection from different perspectives, and raised the public’s awareness of cultural heritage protection, with very satisfactory results.
In the future, IC will continue to collaborate with the public to promote the public in learning and protecting the precious cultural heritage of Macao through various means and channels, so as to enable the city’s distinctive cultural diversity and integration to be passed on to many generations to come.
