Song Yan, the executive vice curator of the Oriental Metropolitan Museum in Nanjing, submitted four proposals to the first session of the 14th National People's Congress, China's national legislature.

As a NPC deputy, Song said one of the proposals is to build the Yangtze River Culture Museum in Nanjing to protect, inherit and promote the cultural legacy of the great river and the city's history as an ancient capital.

The Oriental Metropolitan Museum has set up a task force to carry out preliminary research and planning on the proposed museum. "In recent months, we have conducted research in more than 20 museums and made a systematic study of collections associated with the river at the Nanjing Museum Administration," Song added.

She stressed that Nanjing is one of the birthplaces of the prehistoric civilization of Jiangnan, which refers to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, some 6,000 years ago. The river played a crucial role in the birth, transformation and development of Nanjing's urban civilization, including the ruins representative of the Yangtze River culture, industrial remains such as the Jinling Arsenal, the China Imperial Examination Museum and intangible cultural heritage such as Yunjin, or cloud brocade.

Nanjing also boasts a unique urban geographical advantage as it's one of the first national historical and cultural cities, the only ancient capital in China that straddles the south and north of the river, one of the birthplaces of Jiangnan culture, and the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road.

The Nanjing Museum Administration curated an exhibition showcasing 300 pieces and sets of cultural relics associated with the Yangtze River on the International Museum Day on May 18, 2022.

In January this year, nine museums, including the Nanjing Museum and Anhui Museum, also held a special exhibition on the civilization of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River to show the region's importance in civilization development.

In recent years, Nanjing has placed great importance on the protection of the Yangtze River with a better protection mechanism and a coordinated approach in preservation, bringing forth a new modern landscape of the harmonious coexistence of man and nature.

On January 1 this year, Nanjing's regulation on the Yangtze River shoreline protection came into force, aiming for better protection of towns and villages with historical heritage and helping the high-quality development of the Yangtze River economic belt.