The rock art in Northwest China’s Gansu province was recognized among 13 national rock art remains, marking a new breakthrough of Gansu’s rock art preservation and research.

A site in Jingtai county, Gansu province, home of the Yellow River Stone Forest, got national recognition with 12 other rock art sites at the 2015 China Rock Art Exhibition, which opened on July 5.

Lian Ji, director of Gansu’s provincial department of publicity, visited the rock art exhibition with a group of experts from Gansu at the Capital Museum in Beijing on Tuesday.

At the second International Rock Art Forum on July 5 and 6, the China Rock Art Academy published academic terms and authentication standards, as the beginning of the standardization of China’s rock art research and preservation.

In the past century, domestic research on rock art was conducted without unified principles. The China Rock Art Academy organized the two-month exhibition.

The rock art forum in Beijing aims to promote domestic rock art preservation and research, so that the precious historical cultural relics can join the UNESCO World Heritage list in the future.