Hakka Culture (Gannan) Eco-Protection Zone

The Hakka Culture (Gannan) Eco-Protection Experimental Zone was approved by the Ministry of Culture in January 2013, covering all eighteen counties of Ganzhou, and its 2016–2030 master plan was approved in January 2017. On 17 July 2023 the Ministry of Culture and Tourism formally announced it as a national-level cultural eco-protection zone—one of five experimental zones to pass review that year—safeguarding Gannan tea-picking opera, Xingguo mountain songs and more than ten other national ICH items together.

The zone holds to the principle of "people, things and life all visible," integrating heritage protection with urban and rural life, the natural environment and tangible heritage as a whole. It carries out living transmission through the Hakka roundhouses, old villages, stages and training bases of Gannan, spanning opera, music, crafts, festivals and foodways.

The Hakka Culture (Gannan) Eco-Protection Zone is one of sixteen national-level cultural eco-protection zones in China; it matters greatly for strengthening the reach and continuity of Gannan Hakka culture and for building a shared spiritual home for the Hakka, and serves as a model for the holistic protection of Hakka culture.

The zone covers all of Ganzhou; key showcase sites include the Jiangnan Song City historic-cultural tourism area, the Longnan cluster of Hakka roundhouses and the World Hakka Folk Culture City.