Visitors look at exhibits at the exhibition area featuring cultural relics and intangible cultural heritage of southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region at the 5th China Xizang Tourism and Culture Expo in the region. (People's Daily Online/Wei Yanxing)

An exhibition area featuring cultural relics and the intangible cultural heritage of southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region at the 5th China Xizang Tourism and Culture Expo recently held in the region attracted crowds.

Xizang has three items on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The region has established four state-level demonstration bases for the preservation of intangible cultural heritage items and 151 workshops for intangible cultural heritage items. It boasts one world cultural heritage site, 70 cultural heritage sites under the protection of the state, and 603 cultural heritage sites under the protection of the autonomous region.

Reliable sources indicated that Xizang is home to over 8,000 cultural enterprises, and the annual output of cultural and related industries in the region is worth nearly 7 billion yuan ($977 million), registering an average annual growth of over 15 percent.