A RESEARCH REPORT JOINTLY published by the Changsha-based Central South University and Guangming Daily indicates the protection of old villages is confronted with five problems: the lack of legal protection, over-development, shrinking populations, stereotyped buildings and the contradiction between protecting the appearance of the village and the need to improve residents' livelihoods. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

The problems highlighted in the report are not new and were noted by the central authorities long before the report was published. However, there are limited funds available and these are used to try and protect the most valuable old villages, most of which have become tourist attractions.

In 2012, the government initiated a survey on nearly 20,000 valuable old villages. Two years later, 1,561 were put under State protection.

Yet a large number of the villages are dying as their populations have dwindled, and villages in the suburban areas have been integrated into the expanding cities.

The disappearing of old villages is always accompanied with the loss of tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

There are a large number of old villages in western China that have long histories and rich tangible and intangible cultural resources, but they lack investors, while a number of companies in the cultural industry, a key sector of the economy strongly supported by governments of various levels in the better-off eastern coastal region, are hungry for inspirations and cultural resources.

Governments should coordinate their efforts to encourage companies, institutes and social organizations from East China to take part in the protection and development of old villages in the west of China, and help to preserve and record as much of the cultural heritage as possible.