A trainee practices embroidery skills at craftswoman Liu Yuxia's studio in Qiaoxi District of Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, April 4, 2019. Liu Yuxia is an inheritor of Xu embroidery, which was listed as one of Shijiazhuang's intangible cultural heritages in 2018. China has set up a nationwide intangible cultural heritage protection network comprising 2,467 institutions and 17,308 personnel as of the end of 2018, according to a government report. These institutions sponsored about 65,500 related performances and over 16,800 folk culture activities in 2018, attracting 98 million people to watch, said the report from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. (Xinhua/Chen Qibao)

BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- China has set up a nationwide intangible cultural heritage protection network comprising 2,467 institutions and 17,308 personnel as of the end of 2018, according to a government report.

These institutions sponsored about 65,500 related performances and over 16,800 folk culture activities in 2018, attracting 98 million people to watch, said the report from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

China has strengthened the protection of intangible cultural heritage in recent years.

In 2018, a total of 1,082 individuals were newly recognized as artists with the official responsibility of carrying forward the country's intangible cultural heritage, figures from the report show.

The figure brought the total number of national-level inheritors of intangible cultural heritage in China to 3,068.

China has 1,372 representative intangible cultural heritage programs under state protection. And it has 40 programs on the UNESCO World Intangible Cultural Heritage List.

The government earmarked 201 million yuan (around 29 million U.S. dollars) last year from the central budget to build 26 national facilities for the protection and utilization of intangible cultural heritage.