The state provides support to organs of self-government of autonomous areas to independently develop cultural undertakings inethnic languages and with ethnic characteristics, including literature, art, news, publishing, broadcasting, movies and television programs. It organizes and provides support for the collecting, editing, translating and publishing of historical and cultural books of ethnic minorities. It protects scenic spots and historical sites, valuable cultural relics, and other important items of the local cultural heritage, and inherits and carries forward the traditional culture of the ethnic groups. The state has established a national ethnic-minority ancient books publishing planning team to sort out ancient books of ethnic minorities. Now, institutions for the editing of and research in ancient books of ethnic minorities have been established in 25 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government), 130 autonomous prefectures and leagues across the country. They have collected 120,000 titles of ancient books of ethnic minorities and published over 5,000 of them. By the end of 2004, China had 30 world heritage sites including cultural, natural sites and the mixed. Two of the cultural heritage sites, namely, the Potala Palace in Lhasa and the Old Town of Lijiang, and three of the natural heritage sites, namely, Jiuzhaigou Scenic & Historic Interest Area, Huanglong Scenic & Historic Interest Area and the Three Parallel Rivers scenic spot, are located in ethnic autonomous areas. In addition, the Dongba classical documents of the Naxi ethnic group are included in the World Memory Heritage List. A National Traditional Ethnic MinoritySports Meet is held every four years. The development of the traditional medicine of the ethnic groups is thriving. At present,Tibet produces 293 kinds of Tibetan medicine, with an annual output of over 1,500 tons. Tibetan ready-made medicine has found its way to the national public medicare market. The total annual output value of Tibetan medicine producers is more than 450 million yuan.

    The state attaches great importance to ecological construction and environmental protection in ethnic autonomous areas. All the four key areas and four key projects listed in the "National Ecological Envi-ronment Construction Plan" of the Chinese government are in ethnic minority areas. The "Natural Forest Protection Project" and the pro-jects for converting farming land back to forestry and pasture are mostly in ethnic minority areas. Nearly half of the 226 national nature reserves are located in those areas. In addition, the central government has launched the "Project for Comprehensive Improvement of the Environment of the Tarim Basin" in Xinjiang and the "Project for Protection of the Source of the Three Rivers" in the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai, and attaches great importance to the ecological improvement of the karst areas in southern China.