NEW YORK, Aug. 2, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On July 5, 2017, UNESCO New York Association hosted Preservation and Development of World Cultural Heritage Forum. It invited representatives and experts from different countries and fields, such as: architects, artists and collectors. Attended guests included New Jersey Assemblyman Gordon Johnson; Maldives' former Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ahmed Sareer; Citibank Risk Management VP, Henry Zhu; Chief Executive Officer for News China Magazine, Tianbo Huang; General Consultant of American's Guangzhou Overseas Chinese Union, Jinrong Zhen; Marketing Director from Sotheby's International Realty, Moni He; Executives from Shanghai Gaoyu Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. (the developer of the Shanghai Taohuayuan) was also invited to participate in the event. Former congressman Ed Towns also sent his special regards to this forum.
The President of UNESCO New York Association, Yiling Li, spoke at the forum. She emphasized the importance of United Nation's 17 Sustainable Goals (SDGs). She also affirmed the positive impact this forum would have at the cultural exchange. Participants also shared the advanced theories and global practices of cultural and heritage preservation. Afterwards, delegates discussed on the challenge and difficulties of cultural preservation and how it can be incorporated with commercial development and urban planning. In addition, several topics including how to combine cultural heritage with commerce and urbanization to ultimately achieve sustainable development were also explored.
With the main topic focused on how to achieve sustainable development of the world's cultural heritage under the process of globalization and continuing urbanization, the forum, through an in-depth exchange of ideas and by taking the Shanghai Taohuayuan project in China as a pioneer in executing such initiative, reached consensus on a number of viewpoints through extensive dialogs during the forum.
The Shanghai Taohuayuan was uniformly praised by experts as "global civilization and a world treasure" for its comprehensive application of construction techniques borrowed from Chinese classical gardens, insertion of traditional Chinese life aesthetics, and accompanied by astonishingly beautiful pictures of the landscape of Shanghai Taohuayuan.
At the forum, UNESCO New York Association and Shanghai Taohuayuan established the Cultural Strategic Partnership that would Promote the United Nation's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Notably, Suzhou Taohuayuan, another architectural masterpiece, and a sister project of Shanghai Taohuayuan, was listed at the top of CNN's list of the most expensive homes sold in 2016, with an assessed valuation of US$154 million.
