World Heritage Site newsletter #14

November 2007

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Busy months lie behind me. I did enjoy my longest trip ever (to China), while the daily updates and changes on the website went on as before.

New visited sites

During the past three months I travelled all across China to see a large number of its WHS (and some other places of course). My overall impression is that all Chinese WHS see a considerate number of (Chinese) visitors and have the facilities to handle that. Unfortunately there are no really obscure sites to discover, but the general quality of the WHS is high and they seem well looked after. All charge entry fees, sometimes up to 220 Yuan (22 EUR). Often there are ‘Rules for the visitor’ written down at the entrance of a site, like ‘Don’t paint or carve on the historical relics’ or ‘Wear clean and proper clothes’ . ‘Don’t force foreign tourists to take photos’ is another good one: they didn’t force me, but I was asked to feature on a Chinese holiday snap about once a day.

I managed to visit 20 new WHS during this trip, putting my Chinese total up to 31 (out of 35). Three of these sites hadn’t been reviewed on the website before and I was especially curious to check them out.

- Taishan: the most sacred peak of all sacred mountains in China, this Taoist heritage is the most exemplary site to visit this phenomenon where nowadays unfit or high-heeled Chinese haul themselves up a mountain.

- Lushan: an eclectic site of which it still (after both visiting and reading the advisory body evaluation) is not very clear to me why it’s on the list.

- Yin Xu: the ruins of Yin definitely the best find of the trip. This well-planned and pleasant site is a great trip for anyone interested in languages. It tells the story of the Oracle Bones, the people that used them and the influence it had on the Chinese language.

Next confirmed destinations are Northern Germany & Denmark (December 2007) and Syria (March 2008).

About possible new WHS

Countries can send in their (changed) tentative lists all over the year. There is now a complete new tentative list online for Iran, containing no less than 50 sites! Georgia also has brushed off its list, and so will the USA in early 2008.

Lots of talk already about 2008’s admissions to the World Heritage List. In the document linked below you can find the candidates that officially will be considered at the meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Québec, Canada.

Link: http://whc.unesco.org/archive/2007/whc07-31com-inf8b3e.pdf

Recommended sites

Over 85% of the sites have now been reviewed by visitors. ‘Only’ 122 to go! Please add your remarks to the website if you’ve visited places like Sucre (Bolivia), Wadi al Hitan (Egypt), Pattadakal (India) or even Wrangel Island (Russia).

Some WHS recently received their first travel notes:

· John Booth from New Zealand has visited Israel’s Biblical Tells and the Desert Cities of the Negev.

· Jeff from the USA went to Upper Svaneti, a remote region in Georgia. “Upon entering Upper Svaneti, I did not know what to be more impressed by: the towers, the landscape, or the people…”

· A fellow American was the first to visit the Vallée de Mai on the Seychelles.

· Olivier van Zon wrote a trip report about Takht-e Soleyman in Iran: “How anyone would have ever built such a large fortress in the middle of nowhere remains a mystery to me but obviously not to the Zoroastrians at the time”.

· The Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains were paid a visit by Jarek Pokrzywnicki (“…you should have a good local map to get there or at least have enough luck to find a person that show you the right direction….”)

In the News

Those Google Alerts keep bombarding me every day with WHS-related news stories. The most relevant ones are displayed on WHS in the News, a page updated almost daily.

Current stories include:

· The WHS-status of Dresden may end in July 2008: ‘UNESCO regrets decision on construction of bridge that threatens delisting of Dresden Elbe Valley from World Heritage List’ (http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=41264&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html).

· Meanwhile, a similar position of Zabid may have been prevented: ‘Joint German-Yemeni plan to preserve World Heritage Site status (http://www.yobserver.com/front-page/10013312.html).

· Money woes trouble Robben Island Museum (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=180&art_id=vn20071114035334510C506336).

· World's largest mangrove forest the Sundarbans in Bangladesh major causality of cyclone (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/18/content_7101762.htm).

About the website

On a rainy day or two in China I’ve been able to complete the project of adding relevant content to each single one of the site- and country-pages. This resulted also in improved themepages, where it is now much easier to get an overview and compare between the sites.

Future plans for the website include:

· Country news

· Improve site descriptions (the first two sentences have to answer to: What is it? And: Why is it on the List?)

· Add theme descriptions and/or subthemes (like Inca or Hanseatic League)

That’s it for this edition, Els
webmaster www.worldheritagesite.org