Yunnan rice fields and Mount Fuji named World Heritage Sites
Unesco recognises the Honghe Hani rice terraces, along with Japan's Mount Fuji
China and Japan were celebrating last night after the UN granted World Heritage status to the terraced rice fields of Honghe Hani in Yunnan and Mount Fuji.
Unesco said the rice fields in Yuanyang county, in the southeast of the province, reflect "in an exceptional way a specific interaction with the environment mediated by integrated farming and water management systems".
"Carved out of dense forest over the past 1,300 years by Hani people … the irrigated terraces support paddy fields overlooking narrow valleys," the cultural wing of the United Nations said in documents prepared ahead of the inscription.
"In some places, you can see up to 3,000 suspended terraces on the slopes" of Ailao mountains, it said.
Tong Mingkang, deputy director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, thanked the 21-member World Heritage Committee for inscribing the site on the list and vowed to provide the best conservation for this site. "Hani people will take today as their honey day," he said.
The addition of the rice fields takes the number of World Heritage Sites in China to 45.
Unesco said Mount Fuji, had "inspired artists and poets and been the object of pilgrimage for centuries".