BEIJING - China owns 43 properties on the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), ranking it number three in the world.

Minister of Culture Cai Wu made the comments on Wednesday when briefing national lawmakers on the progress made in cultural realm at the bi-monthly session (scheduled from October 23 to 26) of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature.

Cai said the country has bolstered the protection of intangible cultural heritage (ICH).

China has the largest number of ICH items on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.

Cai added, the census on intangible cultural heritage has made headway, during which 290,000 pieces of materials, written records measuring two billion characters, and 4.77 million photographs had been collected.