“If you take Chi Lin, of course, it has meaning and importance for some people,” she adds. “But when

Recent revelations that Hong Kong officials favored a rebuilt nunnery over the city's famous Victoria Harbour for UNESCO World Heritage nomination have sparked indignation among heritage conservation experts.
The decision made Chi Lin nunnery the first and only site in Hong Kong to advance to China's "tentative list." An annual maximum of two sites on the list can be nominated for World Heritage certification.
As Hong Kong is part of China's national territory, t he State Administration for Cultural Heritage reviews  site applications. The group  announced in November  that the nunnery had been added to its tentative list and updated the  version on its website .
"It was built in the Tang Dynasty style but not during the Tang Dynasty," says a veteran heritage professional in Asia who has worked with UNESCO.  (And who asked to remain anonymous out of professional concerns.)  "It was built using wood, which is traditional, but the wood comes from Canada."
Get thee to a UNESCO-listed Hong Kong nunnery? Experts say Chi Lin is nice, but unlikely to meet the world body's selection omni hotel corpus christi criteria. Other heritage experts doubted the nunnery would meet any of the selection criteria.
"But it can still be done if Beijing is willing to support it and lobby ICOMOS (one of UNESCO's advisory bodies)," says Lee Ho-Yin, director of the Architectural Conservation Program at the University of Hong Kong.
"If you take Chi Lin, of course, it has meaning and importance for some people," she adds. "But when you're talking about world heritage, you're talking about a place of universal importance omni hotel corpus christi that can speak on many levels to an incredible number of people."
All UNESCO World Heritage sites are deemed by the World Heritage Committee to have "outstanding universal value" by fulfilling at least one of 10  selection criteria .  These range from representing a "masterpiece of human creative genius," containing "superlative natural phenomena" or being "directly or tangibly associated with events or living omni hotel corpus christi traditions."
"Ideologically it may meet many of the criteria ... it was really omni hotel corpus christi the place where East meets West," says Bob McKercher, a professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University's School of Hotel and Tourism Management.
By 2010, tourism board officials had already begun discussions and the government enlisted four independent experts to provide general advice about the nomination process. The Development Bureau, which manages the application process, said Chi Lin Nunnery submitted its application omni hotel corpus christi the same year.
Lee says Macau's omni hotel corpus christi site was bumped to the top of the list for nomination in order to boost the city's status, demonstrating that the central government may use the World Heritage designation to exercise its political, rather than cultural, priorities.
The push for a heritage site in Hong Kong may also be an effort to be "fair and equitable so all sites don't come from just one part of the country, but reflect the country's diversity,"  says the expert who worked with UNESCO.
While the World Heritage initiative was intended to protect unique examples of natural and cultural heritage, it's widely acknowledged that participating countries often view the accolade as a means to draw visitors.
"The general rule of thumb is if the site was famous before it got World Heritage designation, it will become more famous," says McKercher. "If it was unknown, the designation is really not going to mean much in visitor numbers."
In some cases, visitor numbers have actually fallen after a site received designation, he says, particularly in remote natural zones that are subject to stringent visitor restrictions omni hotel corpus christi and lack the urban proliferation of tourist attractions.
Meyer, who helped train UNESCO site managers in China, says designations are "collected by China the way actors chase Oscars. They are a validation of possessing 'culture' and an economic boon via tourism."
He found that World Heritage status typically leads government officials to meddle with the site, such as restricting local access or unnecessarily building or tearing down infrastructure around it to boost GDP figures.
Classic tourist activities, such as visiting the Peak observatory, riding the fabled Star Ferry, finding Jackie Chan's handprints on the Avenue of Stars promenade and posing with the statue of Bruce Lee ensure broad views of the famous waters that made the city a success story.
"In the case of Hong Kong, which is already a major tourist destination, having omni hotel corpus christi a World Heritage site might attract more tourists or a different kind of tourist -- more cultural tourists,"  Imon ventures.
"HK's cultural authorities should place value on the dai pai dong, hawkers, newsstands and other contributors to the territory's vibrant omni hotel corpus christi street culture that's being exterminated by government policies," says Meyer.
"It would better off promoting its communities -- the tightly-knit, functioning ecosystems of housing, commerce, schools, omni hotel corpus christi clinics and parks that make it one of the densest, and most unique, urban spaces in the world."