Chinese experts to join Notre Dame Cathedral restoration

Chinese experts will participate in the restoration work of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, said China's National Cultural Heritage Administration Wednesday.

China and France will collaborate on the theme and model and select Chinese expert candidates for the cooperative restoration work in 2020. The selected experts will join the French team in on-site restoration, according to a document jointly signed by the two countries in Beijing Wednesday.

The two sides will also launch science and technology exchanges and training programs on the protection of the Terracotta Warriors in the northwestern Chinese city of Xi'an, according to the document.

Cultural heritage authorities in China and France have been in touch with each other to discuss potential cooperation since a fire broke out in the Notre Dame Cathedral in April, said Liu Yuzhu, director of the NCHA.

To conduct restoration and protection research on the two most "iconic" cultural heritage sites of the two countries will immensely strengthen bilateral cooperation on cultural heritage and play an exemplary role for the world, Liu said.