Over three million people voted for their favorite ancient villages online, with the results being unveiled at the third annual China National Conference on Historic Villages in Beijing last Friday.

Villages that made the top 10 list were known for their beautiful scenery, like Wuzhen, Xitang and Hongcun, or their profound history like Fenghuang, Gontan and Pingyao. Organizers say the vote was a way to remind people of the importance of protecting ancient villages. 

This year's conference on historic villages bears the topic of "original ecology, new lifestyle." Nearly 1,000 people participated in the five-day event, where forums and panel discussions were held on issues regarding ancient villages' preservation and development.

"The topic this year continued our permanent theme of 'preserve and revitalize'. We face many difficulties in protecting ancient villages. On one hand, authenticity is key to heritage, and any kinds of modification will harm its historic information. One the other hand, reality means we have to renovate or modify the heritages to a certain extent. We are all trying to balance the two sides," said Luo Deyin, executive chairman of the conference.

The number of China’s ancient villages decreased to 920,000 in the last 15 years, and are still disappearing at a speed of 1.6 per day.

"Developing tourism is important in revitalizing the villages in two ways. First, it invites more people into the environment of heritage and reminds them of the importance of protecting heritages, so that people are willing to devote more into heritage preservation either financially or with time and energy. Second, opening to tourists forces the sites to face reality challenges, like how to plan and design or how to modify houses," Luo added.

Founded in 2015, the conference is the only multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral conference of ancient villages in China.