Protecting the historical and cultural blocks is at the heart of China's historical and cultural cities conservation system, and also an important part of the historical and cultural heritage protection system. Because of the non-reproducible historical message they've born, those blocks have crucial historical and cultural values.

In 2015, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Cultural Heritage Administration jointly announced the first batch of Chinese historical and cultural blocks and a total of 30 blocks including Beijing's Huangcheng Historical and Cultural Block are selected.