Chinanews, Beijing, Sept 18 – The Chinese Customs Office starts to implement a new regulation on cultural relics exit. The new regulation expands the scope of items that are forbidden to be taken out of China. According to the new regulation, all cultural relics made before 1949 are forbidden to be taken out of China, while previously, only relics produced before 1795 (the last year of the Qing Dynasty emperor Qianlong's reign) were disallowed to be taken out of the country, the Guangming Daily reported.

 

According to the new regulation, the year 1949 serves as an important division year to judge whether a cultural relic can be taken out. The regulation says that generally speaking, all cultural relics that bear some historical, scientific or artistic value and were produced in and before 1949 should not be taken out. Items produced in and before 1911 (the last year of the Qing Dynasty) should not be taken out at all. For cultural relics produced by ethnic minorities, the year 1966 serves as the division year.

 

Cultural relics that might be detrimental to national interests or whose exit might lead to some negative influence in society should not be taken out at all, no matter when they were produced, the new regulation says.