Impact of river basin civilizations highlighted at forum

The importance of great rivers in the development of civilizations and how to better protect cultural heritage in these areas was under the spotlight at a major forum in Zhengzhou, Henan province, last month.

More than 300 heritage professionals and diplomatic envoys from China and other countries with great river basins, including the Indus, Mesopotamian and Nile, attended the 2023 World Great Rivers Civilizations Forum on Sept 17 and 18.

Wang Wei, director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Academic Division of History, says that, in the long history of China, most of its prehistory and dynastic changes took place in the Yellow River Basin.