Scotland and China share heritage expertise

Heritage experts from Scotland and China have been sharing their expertise through the Scottish Ten Project, a digital preservation project. Delegates from the Chinese government's historic environment and cultural heritage bodies have been visiting Scotland to see how the project is leading the world in digital scanning and conservation.

The Chinese delegates were able to visit Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle and the Forth Bridge (pictured) to see how these are managed, cared for and protected.

The two countries recently worked together on a month-long laser scanning project to record China's Eastern Qing Tombs - the final resting place of some of China's best-known emperors. In addition to the Tombs, scanning has already been carried out at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota and Rani ki Vav in Gujarat, India. The Scottish Ten team will travel to Australia next month to scan the Sydney Opera House. The fifth international site has still to be announced.

Lyn Wilson,  Scottish Ten’s Project Manager, said: 'Both Scotland and China have significant amounts of experience in conservation and management of our historic environments. Therefore this visit will allow us to share ideas and knowledge and see where it can be done better and more effectively.

'We hope this visit will establish a long-standing partnership and greater joint working between the Scottish and Chinese heritage bodies particularly in the context of world heritage and digital conservation. We look forward to learning more from each other to the benefit of our respective historic environments.'

For more on the project, visit the Historic Scotland website.

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