As the annual meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee draws to a close in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, it has been announced that the 2020 session will be held in the Chinese city of Fuzhou. 

Participating member states unanimously elected Tian Xuejun, Chinese vice minister of education, to chair the next world heritage session, with meeting chairman Abulfas Garayev confirming that China will be host for a second time. 

The first time was in Suzhou in 2004.

The Baku meeting approved 29 new world heritage projects, including two from China – the Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of the Yellow Sea-Bohai Gulf (Phase I) and the Liangzhu Archaeological Site. 

The world heritage session is a regular meeting of the UNESCO world heritage committee. The main responsibility of the session is to examine and approve the inclusion of new projects into the world heritage list, supervising and guiding the protection of world heritage sites on the list and administering the world heritage fund. 

(Cover image via VCG)