Special issue of the journal “World Heritage” devoted to the world heritage in China was published by UNESCO in July 2021. The issue covers 38 cultural, 14 natural and 4 mixed World heritage properties in China, including one transnational World Heritage property – a 5,000 km section of the magnificent Silk Roads network, spanning China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. This site, the Routes Network of Chang’an-Tianshan Corridor, was inscribed in 2014 after several decades of cross-border cooperation, which has resulted in a coordinated approach to the effective conservation of heritage along the Silk Roads as a whole. The Silk Roads were an interconnected web of routes linking ancient societies from east to west, and they contributed to the development of many of the world’s great civilizations.