Spatial Development of Dataset of 5058 National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units of China

Ye, P.¹  Wang, S.^{2, 3*}  Chen, P.⁴  Jia, Z. Y.^{4, 5}  Lu, Y. X.⁴

1. Urban Planning and Development Institute, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225127, China;

2. State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China;

3. Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and App­lication, Nanjing 210023, China;

4. Key Laboratory of Virtual Geographic Environment, Nanjing Normal University, Ministry of Education, Nanjing 210023, China;

5. China Institute of Geotechnical Investigation and Surveying Limited, Beijing 100007, China

Abstract: The National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units have the highest level of protection designated by China for immovable cultural relics, and have extremely high historical, artistic, and scientific value. The spatial distribution dataset of 5058 National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units in eight batches of China was developed based on the list of those units issued by the State Council in eight batches from 1961 to 2019, which was integrated with Baidu Maps. The dataset includes information on the units such as name, classification number, type, period, batch, and address. The dataset is also archived in .shp and .xls formats and consists of eight files with a size of 25.8 MB (compressed into one 839 KB file).

Keywords: national key cultural relic protection units; national level; immovable cultural relics; spatial point; China

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3974/geodp.2023.04.03

CSTR: https://cstr.escience.org.cn/CSTR:20146.14. 2023.04.03

Dataset Availability Statement:

The dataset supporting this paper was published and is accessible through the Digital Journal of Global Change Data Repository at: https://doi.org/10.3974/geodb.2024.01.09.V1 or https://cstr.escience.org.cn/CSTR:20146.11.2024.01.09.V1.

1 Introduction

The system of “Protected Cultural Relic Units” is a fundamental mechanism for the management of the protection of immovable cultural relics in China. Since its implementation in 1956, it has effectively safeguarded many cultural heritage resources. The National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units have the highest level of protection designated by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China for immovable cultural relics^[1]. The State Council announced eight batches of units in 1961, 1982, 1988, 1996, 2001 (with three supplementary additions thereafter), 2006 (with one supplementary addition thereafter), 2013 (with one supplementary addition thereafter), and 2019, totaling 5058 projects (excluding newly added merged projects). These units are cultural legacies of human activities throughout history, bearing witness to the rise and fall of Chinese civilization. They possess significant historical, artistic, and scientific value, not only inheriting the unique genes of Chinese culture but also showcasing the global identity and status of Chinese civilization^[2].

The categories of units are inconsistent across different batches. The first three batches were divided into six categories: revolutionary sites and revolutionary memorial buildings, grotto temples, ancient buildings and historical memorial buildings, stone carvings and others, ancient ruins, and ancient tombs. Starting from the fourth batch, they were reclassified into six categories: ancient sites, ancient tombs, ancient architectures, grotto temples and stone carvings, important modern historical sites and representative buildings, and others. Therefore, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage reclassified the first three batches according to the new classification. The category “Revolutionary Sites and Revolutionary Memorial Buildings” was changed to “Important Modern Historical Sites and Representative Buildings”. The majority of the previous categories “Grotto Temples” and “Stone Carvings and Others” were merged into “Grotto Temples and Stone Carvings”, with a few being classified under “Others”. Most of the original categories “Ancient Buildings and Historical Memorial Buildings” were reclassified as “Ancient Architectures”, with a few categorized under “Important Modern Historical Sites and Representative Buildings”.

With the recent introduction of a series of cultural revitalization and cultural power strategies by the Party and State, cultural heritage units, as the core carriers of culture, have become a hot topic for scholars to explore in terms of their spatiotemporal distribution and development^[3–5]. The dataset of this paper provides spatial point data for the eight batches, totaling 5,058 National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units on a national scale, and includes specific categories, administrative divisions, and announcement batches of those units. It serves as fundamental data support for describing the distribution characteristics of these units in historical space and time. It is crucial for revealing the evolutionary patterns of regional culture and for the protection and inheritance of regional cultural resources.

2 Metadata of the Dataset

The metadata of the Spatial distribution dataset of 5058 National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units in eight batches of China^[6] are summarized in Table 1. It includes the dataset full name, short name, authors, year of the dataset, temporal resolution, spatial resolution, data format, data size, data files, data publisher, and data sharing policy, etc.

Table 1  Metadata summary of the dataset

3 Methods

Eight batches of the list of National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units, spanning from 1961 to 2019, were collected separately. The administrative divisions and geographical coordinates of each unit were obtained using the geographic coding interface of internet maps. These data were then visualized for the spatial distribution of those units based on ArcGIS.

3.1 Data Sources

The list of units was sourced from relevant notifications published on the Chinese government website[1]. The names of each notification, their publication dates, and the number of announcements are provided in Table 2.

Table 2  Relevant notices of National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units

Notes: ① The lists of National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units announced in the fourth to eighth batches also contain numbers for the merged units. As these mergers represent an expansion of the original scope and content of the units, this study did not conduct separate statistical analyses. ② The Great Wall (No. 442), a National Key Protected Cultural Relic Unit, comprises eight sections: the Great Wall site of Qi State, the Great Wall site of Qin State, the Great Wall site of Yan State, the Simatai section, the Wulonggou section, the Yanmen Guan section, the Qingshui River section, and the Zhenbeitai section. Therefore, there are 526 units in the fifth batch. The following lack numbering and classification codes: ③ the newly added Ruins of Liye Ancient City, ④ the newly added A’erzhai Grottoes, ⑤ the newly added Martyr Jiao Yulu’s Tomb, and ⑥ the newly added Anjiang Agricultural School Memorial Park.

The notifications for the list of National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units include attributes such as serial number, code number, name, type of cultural relic, era, and address. Address refers to the administrative division in which the cultural relic protection unit is located according to the published list of that year. It should be noted that data for Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan are currently unavailable.

3.2 Data Processing

(1) Coordinate acquisition

The list of National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units published in relevant official website notifications does not display their geographical coordinates. It is necessary to utilize the Baidu Map Place API to geocode the names and addresses of these units, and then use a coordinate conversion tool[2] to convert the coordinates from the Baidu Map BD09 to the WGS84 system.

For units where coordinate information cannot be obtained from the Baidu Map Place API, this study relied on the National Cultural Heritage Administration’s comprehensive administrative management platform[3] for retrieval. Utilizing its cultural heritage map service display interface, relevant spatial location information for these units was directly accessed.

(2) Administrative division supplementation

The list of National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units, when released, includes address information. However, due to the large time span of each batch’s publication, many of the locations and spatial extents of the original administrative divisions have changed. To meet the analysis requirements of the current data situation, we obtained the latest administrative divisions they belong to with the help of the Baidu map global inverse geocoding service interface, according to the geographical coordinates of the units.

(3) Data storage

The obtained geographical coordinate data for National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units, along with administrative division data, were merged to generate a data file in .shp format. The attributes such as name, era, batch, and type of cultural relic for each unit were stored in .xls format. The field names and their examples are shown in Table 3.

Table 3  Attribute fields of dataset

4 Data Results and Validation

4.1 Data Composition

The spatial distribution dataset of 5058 National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units in eight batches of China consists of two parts: (1) location vector data (.shp format) and (2) attribute data (.xls format) for National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units, including name, year, batch, type, and administrative division.

4.2 Data Product

In terms of spatial distribution, National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units are widely distributed throughout various regions of China, covering 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government (Figure 1). Of these, the top ten provinces with the highest number of National Key Units are Shanxi (the highest), Henan, Hebei, Zhejiang, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Hunan, Shandong, and Anhui. Shanxi has 530, accounting for 10.4% of the total nationwide, which is equivalent to the sum of the ranks of the last ten provinces. In contrast, the three provinces with the fewest are Tianjin, Hainan, and Ningxia, with 33, 35, and 36, respectively.

In terms of era distribution, the Nat­ional Key Protected Cultural Relic Units are roughly divided into 22 eras. The Ming and Qing dynasties have a greater number of units due to their long duration and relatively recent history. Those from the Republican era are mainly concentra­ted in the category of “Important Modern Historical Sites and Representative Bui­ldings”. Dynasties such as Xia, Shang, and Jin have a limited number of surviving units of 30 either due to their ancient age, short duration, or frequent conflicts. The Han and Tang dynasties, as periods of great unity, social prosperity, strong national power, and long duration, have left behind numerous culturally significant heritage sites. Therefore, the quantity of surviving relics from each era is closely related to factors such as the proximity to the present era, the duration of existence, and the frequency of human activities.

Figure 2  Statistics of the number of National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units in each era

In terms of cultural relic types, ancient architectures constitute the largest proportion of existing units in China, accounting for 42.7%. Following this are ancient sites (24.5%), important modern historical sites and representative buildings (18.7%), ancient tombs (8.3%), grotto temples and stone carvings (6%), and others (0.6%), as detailed in Table 4.

5 Discussion and Conclusion

A comprehensive understanding of the spatial distribution of National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units is of great significance for in-depth research, overall protection, rational

Table 4  Statistics of the number of National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units of each type

development, and the formulation of policies regarding Chinese traditional culture  represented by these units. This dataset collects information on eight batches of those units (5,058 in total) announced by the State Council from 1961 to 2019. It includes detailed attribute information such as unit number, name, type of cultural relic, batch, and spatial information such as geographical coordinates and administrative divisions for each unit. This dataset holds considerable potential for data mining, and it is hoped that the attribute and spatial information provided by this dataset can serve as a reference and data foundation for exploring and analyzing deeper patterns in related research fields.

Author Contributions

Ye, P. and Wang, S. conducted the overall design of the dataset development; Chen, P., Jia, Z. Y., and Lu, Y. X. collected and processed the data of National Key Protected Cultural Relic Units; Ye, P. wrote the data paper; Wang, S. reviewed the data paper.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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