Hunan's Laosi Town, Regional Defense System Relic and Tong Ethnic Group Villages Contend for World Heritage Tentative List.
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage is about to release a new "World Heritage Tentative List". With no world-level cultural heritage before, Hunan this time has three items contend for the list: Laosi Town in Yongshun County, regional defense system in Fenghuang and villages of the Tong ethnic group.
It seems that Laosi Town has the great chance to win the event. The regional defense system in Fenghuang includes over 470 military relics such as towns, military outposts, ligatures, flank walls, etc. Fenghuan was a military town from Yuan to Ming and Qing Dynasties. The fully-equipped and well-built defense site is the product of cultural blend between local culture and Chu culture, culture of Miao ethnic group and culture of Han Chinese.
The villages of Tong ethnic group in southwest Hunan are jointly applied by six counties in three provinces (Hunan, Guizhou and Guangxi). With well-preserved Tong culture, Tongdao and Liping, Sanjiang in the above three provinces respectively, being contiguous to each other, are the core regions for the dialect of southern Tong people.
Translator: He Yao
Source: Hunan Official Web Portal