"As a grassroots cultural and museum worker, I hope to measure the earth with the original intention of archaeology and cultural and museum people."

  On April 28, the State Council Information Office held a meeting with Chinese and foreign journalists on "Struggle on the New Journey". From the front line of work to the meeting site, Wang Long and five other representatives were simple and unpretentious, and they talked about their work with great knowledge and full of love. They are typical people who struggle in the field of cultural heritage protection. They interpret their original intentions with practical actions and inherit the torch of civilization with their dreams.

  On April 28, the State Council Information Office held a meeting with Chinese and foreign journalists in Beijing for “Strugglers on the New Journey”. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li He

  The fourth national cultural relics census field investigation was fully carried out, and the "Beijing Central Axis - the Masterpiece of China's Ideal Capital Order" was successfully applied for World Heritage. The museum received more than 1.4 billion visitors throughout the year, and 7 batches of 211 pieces (sets) of lost cultural relics and artworks returned to the motherland... Behind each achievement is the wisdom and perseverance of countless cultural relics protection workers.

  "Measure the earth" is Wang Long, the head of the Archaeology Institute and associate researcher from the Turpan Academy in Xinjiang, and is also his daily life. He spent a year leading his team to travel around the mountains and rivers of Turpan, and investigated a total of 1,108 Kanerjings.

  "As the instructor of the fourth national cultural relics survey in the Turpan area, I took the lead in organizing and implementing the special survey project of Tianshan Cave Road in the Tianshan area in northern Turpan, leading everyone to visit every canyon and every river berth in the Tianshan Mountains in the northern part, and 74 newly discovered ancient tombs, ancient ruins, ancient rock paintings, and ancient buildings." Wang Long was full of pride when talking about his recent gains.

  Choose one thing for the rest of your life. For Song Shuxia, deputy director and associate researcher of the Cultural Promotion Department of the Dunhuang Research Institute, explaining Dunhuang for more than 20 years is to "build a bridge of dialogue between modern and ancient civilizations." She has always remembered a sentence from Fan Jinshi, honorary dean of the Dunhuang Research Institute - "The interpretation that the literacy of the tour guide determines the value of cultural heritage."

  "This sentence has always guided me to constantly explore and move forward in the position of cultural promotion." Song Shuxia said, "In the future, I will continue to practice and carry forward the Mogao spirit and make new contributions to the cause of Dunhuang culture promotion."

  On June 7, 2024, at the Dunhuang Grottoes Cultural Relics Protection Research and Exhibition Center, tourists visited the mural of the Mogao Grottoes Replica Cave 276. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Lang Bingbing

  Love can last for the long time. Xia Gewangdui, deputy director of the Tibet Autonomous Region Cultural Relics Protection Institute and third-level research librarian, has been engaged in cultural relics and archaeology for nearly 30 years and has participated in field work on nearly 100 projects.

  Facing the reporter, Xia Gewangdui excitedly reported a good news - the Kangmama Niu site in Tibet, which he was in charge of archaeological work, was selected as one of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in the country in 2024 last week.

  "After the archaeological work in recent years, Tibet has made great breakthroughs in the archaeological fields of Paleolithic, Neolithic and Metal Ages." Although the plateau conditions are arduous, Xiagewangdui still looks forward to playing the greatest role in Tibet's archaeological field work and cultural relics protection.

  The first phase of the relics (bone tools and stone tools) unearthed from the Kangmamajiu site in Tibet. Xinhua News Agency (Photo provided by the Office of the Top Ten Archaeological New Discovery Activities in the Country)

  Some people pursue history with their steps, while others use craftsmanship to inherit civilization. In the view of Liu Hanxing, associate research librarian at the International Cooperation Center for Cultural Heritage Protection of the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage, cultural relics protection is also an important channel for exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations.

  "Our cultural relics and foreign aid engineering projects are getting wider and wider, contributing China's wisdom and experience to the protection and development of Asian cultural heritage." Liu Hanxing's words are confident.

  The ruins of the Angkor Angkor Palace in Cambodia, the nine-story temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, the ancient city of Shiva, Uzbekistan... Liu Hanxing's footprints are spread all over Asia, restoring human treasures again and again.

  The ancient civilization has been around for a long time, with generations of determined pursuit and relay protection.

  Liu Hongyan, a Great Wall Protectiver in Shixia Village, Badaling Town, Yanqing District, Beijing, was influenced by his uncle and became the first batch of Great Wall Protectiver in the village.

  In the 1980s, Liu Hongyan's uncle voluntarily picked up garbage and found cultural relics on the Great Wall to dissuade uncivilized behavior; now, Liu Hongyan has to travel more than ten kilometers every day to monitor dangers, clean up stone steps, and pick up garbage. The towering Great Wall is protected by generations, which is moving.

  "I love the Great Wall, and my family loves the Great Wall, including the whole village, everyone in our village loves the Great Wall." From one person, to a family, to a group of people, the story of the Great Wall that Liu Hongyan experienced is a microcosm of a nation protecting its own treasures.

  During the exchange, Wang Long told the story of his fellow villagers actively cooperating with the cultural relics survey and summed it up in one sentence: "The people are the first guardian of cultural heritage."

  The towering China and the magnificent mountains and rivers. Civilization is like water, soaking silently.

  Pay tribute to every "guardian of civilization", the treasures of China have been passed down from generation to generation, and they are endless.

  Planning: Chen Fang

  Reporter: Xu Zhuang

  Production from Xinhua News Agency

[Editor in charge: Zhang Xinran]