On the occasion of the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival, a traditional and statutory holiday to mark the famous Chinese poet Qu Yuan who lived during the Warring States Period in ancient China, the Ministry of Culture decides to conduct two theme activities to celebrate the day. One will be co-hosted with Zhejiang government and entitled "2012 China (Jiaxing) Dragon Boat Festival" in Jiaxing city from June 21 to 24, while the other will be co-organized with Hubei government in Yichang city from June 10 to 25.

As of October, 2009, a total of 22 projects from China had been successfully incorporated into the World ICH list, and among them the Dragon Boat Festival is the only Chinese traditional holiday.

Inspector Qu Shengrui from the ICH department of the MOC said in a press conference that in recent years, China has made significant progress in ICH protection and has established an initial ICH protection system in compliance with our current scenario. 

During the period, the first ICH census across the whole country was completed. Meanwhile a four-leveled ICH listing mechanism and an inheritor protection system were duly established. 

China has been proactively submitting ICH applications to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and holds the most ICH projects recognized by the UNESCO in the world.

The Intangible Cultural Heritage Law, adopted by the Standing Committee of the 11thNational People's Congress in 2011, provides a cast-iron guarantee for the effective implementation of the ICH protection policy. 

Qu noted that his department is overseeing the ICH protecting process nationwide in a bid to ensure the ICH projects and inheritors are well defended. [Chinese version is available on legaldaily.com.cn]