On January 26th, 2019, Dujiangyan officially became the second member city of the Organisation of the World Heritage Cities (OWHC) in China. To celebrate this event, the Municipality of Dujiangyan invited Mr Jahyun Jang, Secretary-General of OWHC Asia Pacific, Dr Simone Ricca, Vice-Director of WHITRAP Shanghai, and Dr. Huang Yong, Program Administrator of OWHC-AP, to the Awarding Ceremony. Mr. Yuan Ming, Deputy Mayor of Dujiangyan attended this event hosted by Ms Dong Guowei, Director of the Municipal Foreign Affair Office. The OWHC is an international non-profit NGO established in Morocco in 1993, and headquartered in Quebec, Canada. It counts 332 cities, in 122 countries, including Paris, Vienna, Moscow, Kyoto and Suzhou. It promotes the implementation of WH Convention, encourages cooperation in the field of heritage conservation and management, and enhances the solidarity and mutual benefits among member cities.

The city of Dujiangyan (Sichuan Province, 800.000 inhabitants) hosts the Mount Qingcheng and the Dujiangyan Irrigation System cultural World Heritage Site (2000), and the serial natural World Heritage Site of the Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries (2006). Through its global network, OWHC will contribute to the conser-vation and utilisation of Dujiangyan’s WH sites, supporting the city’s efforts to fulfil UNESCO’s Culture Conventions requirements, and to meet the goals set by the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. In turn, the scientific achievement of Dujiangyan irrigation system, the Taoism tradition embedded in Mount Qingcheng, and the Panda sanctuary will enrich with new heritage categories the network of the Organisation.