Ancient Chinese civilization breathes life into the economy

At the Long­men Grot­toes in Luoy­ang, Cent­ral China's Henan province, con­ser­va­tion work­ers armed with geo­lo­gical radar, infrared detect­ors and 3D mod­el­ing tech­no­logy are racing against time to pre­serve a great Chinese cul­tural treas­ure.

The carvings at this UNESCO World Her­it­age Site began in the North­ern Wei Dyn­asty (386-534) and con­tin­ued dur­ing the West­ern Wei Dyn­asty (535-556) to the Five Dyn­asties and Ten King­doms (907-960) period. The Long­men Grot­toes is made up of more than 2,300 caves and niches and over 100,000 Buddhist statues. But after cen­tur­ies of weath­er­ing, water seep­age and micro­bial erosion, pro­tect­ing the stone carvings has become an increas­ingly urgent task.

Today, the Long­men Grot­toes is a vivid example of Henan's efforts to strengthen cul­tural her­it­age pro­tec­tion and ensure the con­tinu­ity of Chinese civil­iz­a­tion through both tech­no­lo­gical innov­a­tion and sys­tem­atic pre­ser­va­tion.

"Pro­tec­tion is the theme of cul­tural her­it­age work. It always comes first," said Yu Jie, Party sec­ret­ary of the Long­men Grot­toes Research Insti­tute. He said that the respons­ib­il­ity of the insti­tute is not only to pre­serve these treas­ures, but to pass them on and com­mu­nic­ate their value to future gen­er­a­tions.

In recent years, the insti­tute has accel­er­ated sci­entific con­ser­va­tion efforts. A new cul­tural relic pro­tec­tion tech­no­logy cen­ter equipped with six spe­cial­ized labor­at­or­ies now sup­ports research into rock weath­er­ing, seep­age dam­age and micro­bial growth affect­ing the grot­toes.

"We have shif­ted from primar­ily res­cue-ori­ented pro­tec­tion to pre­vent­ive and sys­tem­atic pro­tec­tion," said Ma Chao­long, a spe­cial­ist at the Grot­toes Pro­tec­tion Research and Her­it­age Mon­it­or­ing Cen­ter, Long­men Grot­toes Research Insti­tute.

At key sites such as Guyang Cave and the Binyang Caves, con­ser­vat­ors have intro­duced upgraded anti­weath­er­ing mater­i­als and sus­pen­ded scaf­fold­ing sys­tems that min­im­ize dir­ect con­tact with the cliff walls dur­ing res­tor­a­tion work.

Research­ers are apply­ing advanced tech­no­lo­gies includ­ing port­able Raman spec­tro­scopy, X-ray fluor­es­cence and geo­lo­gical radar for nondestruct­ive ana­lysis, while 3D print­ing tech­no­logy has been used to rein­force cave struc­tures.

Digital tech­no­logy is also reshap­ing pub­lic access to the ancient site. The insti­tute has com­pleted high-pre­ci­sion 3D map­ping of the grot­toes and launched vir­tual real­ity cave tours, livestream pro­grams and digital exhib­i­tions, allow­ing audi­ences world­wide to exper­i­ence Long­men online. Through digital exhib­i­tions and online com­mu­nic­a­tion, the insti­tute is mak­ing the cul­tural value of Long­men more vis­ible and easier for stu­dents and chil­dren to under­stand.

Tal­ent cul­tiv­a­tion has become another major pri­or­ity. In 2025, the insti­tute recruited 17 new pro­fes­sion­als spe­cial­iz­ing in fields such as mater­i­als sci­ence, chem­istry and geo­logy, mark­ing the largest intake of tech­nical tal­ent in its his­tory. Five addi­tional doc­toral can­did­ates are being jointly trained with Zheng­zhou Uni­versity to strengthen the next gen­er­a­tion of con­ser­va­tion spe­cial­ists.

The pre­ser­va­tion of Long­men Grot­toes reflects broader efforts under­way across Henan, one of the birth­places of Chinese civil­iz­a­tion. In recent years, the province has advanced the project tra­cing the ori­gins of Chinese civil­iz­a­tion while strength­en­ing research and pro­tec­tion of oracle bone inscrip­tions, bronze cul­ture and major archae­olo­gical sites. These include the Zheng­zhou Shang Dyn­asty (c. 16th cen­tury-11th cen­tury BC) city site and the Sui (581-618) and Tang (618-907) dyn­asties Luoy­ang city site.

Henan has also worked to improve cul­tural relic pro­tec­tion reg­u­la­tions and pro­mote the trans­form­a­tion of her­it­age pre­ser­va­tion from "pass­ive pro­tec­tion" to "act­ive inher­it­ance". This com­bines con­ser­va­tion with pub­lic edu­ca­tion, digital com­mu­nic­a­tion and cul­tural innov­a­tion.

From the tower­ing Long­men Grot­toes in Luoy­ang to the oracle bone inscrip­tions of Any­ang, Henan province is turn­ing its pro­found his­tor­ical leg­acy into a vibrant engine for tour­ism growth, cul­tural revival and pub­lic well-being.

As one of the cradles of Chinese civil­iz­a­tion and home to the Yel­low River ancient cap­it­als cluster, Henan is lever­aging her­it­age to build its national cul­tural tour­ism brand, while accel­er­at­ing the integ­ra­tion of cul­ture and tour­ism into a pil­lar industry that bene­fits both urban and rural com­munit­ies.

Stretch­ing along the middle and lower reaches of the Yel­low River, Henan served as the polit­ical and cul­tural heart­land of ancient China. More than 20 dyn­asties estab­lished cap­it­als in Henan, leav­ing behind monu­mental sites such as the Erl­itou Ruins, believed to be the cap­ital of the middle and late Xia Dyn­asty (c. 21st cen­tury16th cen­tury BC), in Luoy­ang; the Shang Dyn­asty cap­ital ruins in Zheng­zhou; the Yinxu Ruins, the late Shang cap­ital, in Any­ang; and the North­ern Song Dyn­asty (9601127) cap­ital in Kaifeng.

Today, these former cap­it­als are no longer silent rel­ics of the past. Through digital tech­no­lo­gies, immers­ive per­form­ances, museum upgrades and her­it­age con­ser­va­tion projects, they are being trans­formed into dynamic cul­tural des­tin­a­tions attract­ing vis­it­ors from around the world.

Long­men Grot­toes wel­comed 8.51 mil­lion vis­it­ors in 2025 and is expec­ted to receive more than 9 mil­lion this year. Bene­fit­ing from China's 10-day visa-free transit policy, the num­ber of over­seas vis­its to the site in 2025 has surged eight­fold from 2024.

In Any­ang, the Yinxu Ruins is home to China's earli­est known writ­ing sys­tem: jiaguwen, or oracle bone inscrip­tions. It has become a key des­tin­a­tion for vis­it­ors seek­ing to explore the ori­gins of Chinese civil­iz­a­tion. Inter­act­ive exhib­i­tions and live per­form­ances recre­ate Shang Dyn­asty rituals and storytelling tra­di­tions, bring­ing ancient his­tory to life.

Henan Museum in Zheng­zhou, one of China's earli­est museums, has also become a major cul­tural land­mark. Hous­ing more than 170,000 arti­facts, the museum show­cases rel­ics ran­ging from an 8,000-year-old bone flute to Shang bronze ware and Tang Dyn­asty treas­ures, offer­ing vis­it­ors a pan­or­amic view of Chinese civil­iz­a­tion.

To strengthen the cul­tural tour­ism sec­tor, Henan has rolled out a series of policies and devel­op­ment plans. Pro­vin­cial author­it­ies have issued guidelines for build­ing Yel­low River Ancient Cap­it­als cul­tural tour­ism and intro­duced meas­ures to stim­u­late tour­ism con­sump­tion and foster new cul­tural busi­ness mod­els.

The province is also cul­tiv­at­ing emer­ging sec­tors includ­ing immers­ive per­form­ances, digital cul­tural products and cre­at­ive tour­ism exper­i­ences. Henan enter­prises in cul­tural and related indus­tries above des­ig­nated size gen­er­ated rev­enue of more than 224 bil­lion yuan ($32.9 bil­lion) in 2025, while the rev­enue of new cul­tural busi­ness formats reached 51.3 bil­lion yuan with a year-on-year increase of 27.5 per­cent.

Tour­ism is increas­ingly becom­ing a source of employ­ment and rural vital­iz­a­tion. From homestays and cul­tural work­shops to intan­gible her­it­age per­form­ances and coun­tryside tour­ism projects, local res­id­ents are find­ing new oppor­tun­it­ies linked to the boom­ing vis­itor eco­nomy.

Across the province, themed cam­paigns such as Henan, Where China Began and the 2025 Weibo Travel Night are help­ing tra­di­tional cul­ture res­on­ate with younger audi­ences and inter­na­tional trav­el­ers alike.

Henan has also strengthened its global out­reach. In 2025 alone, the province hos­ted mul­tiple inter­na­tional tour­ism and cul­tural pro­mo­tion events and organ­ized over­seas mar­ket­ing cam­paigns tar­get­ing key mar­kets. The province received 935,000 over­seas vis­its in 2025, up 60.5 per­cent year-on-year.

Mean­while, new media plat­forms are amp­li­fy­ing Henan's appeal. Videos, livestreams and social media cam­paigns centered on archae­ology, museums and ancient cap­it­als have gen­er­ated bil­lions of online views, help­ing the province build a fresh and access­ible cul­tural image.

For many vis­it­ors, trav­el­ing through Henan is not only a jour­ney through ancient cap­it­als but a way to under­stand the con­tinu­ity of Chinese civil­iz­a­tion. As her­it­age sites are revital­ized and tour­ism devel­op­ment reaches deeper into com­munit­ies, Henan is demon­strat­ing how cul­tural pre­ser­va­tion can gen­er­ate eco­nomic vital­ity, enrich pub­lic life and strengthen cul­tural con­fid­ence.