China's first national census on intangible cultural heritage is coming to an end, according to Zhou Heping, Vice Minister of Ministry of Culture.Collection of each province is expected to be published before 2010.

Meanwhile, the Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Law is being revised and perfected by relevant departments within the Legal Affairs Office of the State Council and is expected to be passed by National People's Congress to provide a legal safeguard for intangible cultural heritage protection.

"For the time being, there are significant differences in the progress of the census in different places. The census in places such as Yunnan, Beijing and Zhejiang have been basically finished, but the progress is still slow in some regions," Zhou said. In order to save enough time for the unfinished regions to complete the census, the inspection and acceptance procedures will be carried out gradually from the beginning of next year, and is expected to be completely finished by the end of 2009. The Ministry of Culture will expedite the formulation of specific standards and measures for inspection and acceptance to be distributed before the end of this year.