BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- A batch of Chinese historic sites, including the historic center of Macao, were granted the certificates of world heritage here on Monday.

    Chinese State Councilor Chen Zhili, Edmund Ho Hau Wah, chief executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) and Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) attended the certificate awarding ceremony in Beijing.

    The historic center of Macao was added to the World Heritage List at the 29th session of the World Heritage Committee, held in Durban, South Africa, in July this year.

    The heritage in Macao comprises about two dozen monuments, including the Buddhist Ma Kok Temple, the Catholic Holy House of Mercy, the Old City Walls, the Fortress Hill and a number of churches.

    The relics, most are still in use, have witnessed the earliest pervasion of Western religious culture in the oriental continent as well as its ensuing coexistence with the local culture.

    The other sites awarded the certificates include the capital cities and tombs of the ancient Koguryo Kingdom of China, the three imperial mausoleums dedicated to first and second emperors and the two empresses of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), as well as to the ancestors of the emperors, all in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province, and the Shenyang Imperial Palace of the early Qing Dynasty.

    These sites were added to the World Heritage List at the 28th conference of the World Heritage Committee in July 2004 in Suzhou, a scenic city in Jiangsu Province, east China.

    Joining UNESCO's Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1985, China now has 31 sites on the World Heritage List, the third most next to Italy and Spain, and it is now playing an active role in protecting the world heritages. Enditem