The State Council recently issued the fifth national cultural relics protection list. Among the 40 plus important historical sites, four are on university campuses. This is the first time that universities have entered the cultural relics protection list.

The four sites are the Yanyuan architecture around Weiming Lake at Peking University, the early buildings of Tsinghua University in Beijing, the old site of Dongbei University in Shenyang of Northeast China's Liaoning Province, and the early buildings of Wuhan University in Central China's Hubei Province.

The candidate sites' representation of the best of the architecture and culture of their time was a chief criterion for making the list, said Luo Zhewen, director of the Ancient Architecture Expert Group of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

Luo explained that while the buildings of Peking University were typical of the architecture of the early 1900s, the other universities on the list had been influenced by Western styles while keeping the Chinese traditions.

Over 1,300 universities and institutions of higher learning across China applied for the list. But the four winners secured recognition with their fame and historical significance.

The State Council has declared 1,286 cultural relic sites under State protection. (China Daily)