Abstract The globalization and speedy urbanization challenge the protection and preservation of cultural heritage sites on China's national landscape. Playing an important role in the maintenance of political stability, economic development, social progress and cultural exchanges in Chinese history, the linear cultural heritages require immediate attention and shall be systematically analyzed and protected, which fall into various categories of cultural heritage types such as Cultural Routes, Heritage Canals, Heritage Corridors, and each of which has the potential to be a World Heritage and can all together be integrated into a network covering most regions of China. It is a new model of thinking about the cultural heritage as a system, to upgrade the management level of the Chinese cultural heritages. This paper discusses how a national linear cultural heritage network can be built. Through literature analysis and Delphi method, this paper identifies and recommends 19 important linear cultural heritages attributed to 4 types including transportation lines, military engineering works, natural river courses and hydraulic engineering projects, as well as cultural exchange routes in the history. In terms of spatial scale, these linear cultural heritages range from national scale to regional scale. The network of linear cultural heritages covers almost all the regions in China, from land to waters. In total, the network is composed of 19 linear cultural heritages, accounting for about 250,000 km in length, forming the cultural security pattern on the landscape that safeguards China's cultural identity and can be integrated with the ecological network and greenway systems to serve multiple purposes of recreation, aesthetics appreciation, education, as well as the goal of building a harmony relationship between the land and people, between the past and the present, and act as a spiritual linkage between the people and their mother land at the grassroots.
2009, Vol. 24 
