Co-organized by the UNESCO and International Training Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific under the auspices of UNESCO (CRIHAP), supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture, the Training of Trainers Workshop on Intangible Cultural Heritage for Facilitators from the Asia-Pacific was held at Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, from July 2 to 6.

More than 40 participants including trainees, expert professors, media and officials took part in the opening ceremony on July 2. Liang Bin, director-general of CRIHAP, hosted the event and extended his warm welcome to all the trainees who came all the way to Hangzhou city.

"I am so glad to see that more people have joined us in protecting intangible cultural heritage as they are the embodiment of cultural diversity," Liang said, adding that as of June 2018, a total of 32 training sessions have been held so far, covering 33 countries and benefiting more than 1,027 people. And it marks the second time that China played host to the trainers' workshop on ICH for Facilitators from the Asia-Pacific.

As a regional and international organization and coordinating agency in the field of ICH under the auspices of UNESCO, CRIHAP is committed to conducting international training activities in the field of intangible cultural heritage (ICH), proactively building up a regional and international exchange and cooperation platform, engaging in the implementation of the Global Capacity-Building Strategy of UNESCO for strengthening national capacities for implementing The 2013 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, and making contributions to ICH safeguarding undertakings in the Asia-Pacific and worldwide.

In recent years, based on the local conditions, the People's Government of Zhejiang Province has spared no effort in ICH safeguarding work.

According to Chen Yao, director general of Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture, Zhejiang boasts 2017 national-level cultural heritages in the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List, ranking 1st across the nation.