A group of volunteers in Chongqing municipality, southwest China, have made great efforts to protect the ancient buildings and revitalize traditional villages in the city, People’s Daily reported.

Volunteers do research in Chongqing. (File photo)

The volunteers, who belong to a non-governmental organization established in 2011, have organized over 30,000 activities and toured along 39 cultural routes in Chongqing in the past nine years to record the city’s history.

During their tours along the cultural routes, they found that the ancient buildings suffered various types of damage, and decided that each one of them would follow up on several cultural relics in a detailed manner.

Each volunteer would check the buildings under their charge at regular intervals, write up reports on the conditions of the historical buildings and submit them to the relevant government departments for them to formulate plans to repair and improve the damaged structures.

By December 2019, the volunteers had written a total of 2,482 reports on 132 cultural relics in Chongqing.

Starting from the end of 2017, the team members have conducted investigations in 74 ancient villages in Chongqing in an attempt to spread knowledge of traditional customs. They have helped build museums in the villages or kept journals on the villages, which are then printed and distributed to more people.

At the same time, the volunteers have worked together with schools to give lessons on cultural protection to encourage students to participate in the protection of cultural relics.