OREANDA-NEWS. February 24, 2012. Cultural authorities in Anhui province opened a meeting Thursday to set out priorities for 2012.

A cultural museum and an intangible cultural heritage museum are set to be built in Hefei, the province's capital city, this year, Yang Guo, head of the provincial department of culture said at the conference.

Meanwhile, hundreds of grassroots-level cultural facilities will spread all over the province, with cultural stations in 65 towns and information-based projects for public cultural services in 667 towns, 40 neighbourhoods and 27 communities, Yang said.

The central government will fund the construction or expansion of 11 libraries, 11 cultural museums and 6 museums in the province with a subsidy of 436 million yuan (USD 69 million) during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) period.

Due to its insufficient preservation, exhibition and utilization over archaeological sites,  Anhui province, though rich in historic ruins, some of which have profound influence home and abroad, failed to inscribe itself on a list of the first batch of national archaeological ruins parks released in 2010 by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

At the meeting, Yang pledged to work harder to preserve huge ruins like Linjiatan in Hanshan county, Qianshan county's Xuejiagang and Yuchi Temple in Mengcheng county and build ruins parks there. She also urged more efforts to protect and bid for a world heritage status for the Anhui-section Grand Canal.

Furthermore, local authorities will launch a campaign to protect ten fast-vanishing state-level intangible cultural heritage items, collecting information about major successors of provincial-level-or-above cultural traditions over 65, the cultural official said at the meeting.