Lighting devices have been banned in buildings considered to be cultural heritages, as per a recent guideline by the National Cultural Heritage Administration and the Ministry of Emergency Management to improve the fire safety of cultural artifacts. This is the first such guideline.

In recent years, many tourist destinations have been illuminating their ancient monuments to beautify the cities' night view and draw tourists.

However, such lighting poses hazards as a short circuit or faulty lights could trigger a fire. Wood being the main component of many ancient edifices, they are bound to go up in flames within minutes once a fire occurs.

The fire in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in April and a second one in Shuri Castle on the southern island of Okinawa, Japan, in October have sounded an alarm for fire safety of ancient buildings in China.

Ancient building lighting is the result of insufficient understanding of the core values of architecture, which should be studied through details such as doors, windows and structure to dig into the history behind. Lighting only beautifies the exterior.

Ancient architectural marvels are irreplicable. Any move to dress them up for short-term interests is improper.

(This is an edited excerpt of an article originally published in China Youth Daily on December 3)