To further advance cultural heritage protection and economic and social development in a coordinated manner, Jingzhou applied for the creation of a national cultural heritage protection and utilization demonstration zone in early 2020. During the epidemic, Jingzhou has created a cultural heritage protection and demonstration zone while preventing and controlling the epidemic, and renovated the work method.

The National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA) kicked off the creation of national cultural heritage protection and utilization demonstration zones in late 2019. As a large city of cultural heritage and an important great site protection area in the country, Jingzhou promptly established a leading group on the creation of a national cultural heritage protection and utilization demonstration zone led by the vice mayor in charge and composed of Jingzhou District, Jinan Eco-culture Tourism Zone, the Jingzhou Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage, Jingzhou Museum, the Jingzhou Cultural Heritage Protection Center and other departments.

The sudden epidemic outbreak in early 2020 brought challenges to the creation work. Thus, Jingzhou established a leading group, renovated the work method, replaced centralized working with online working, strengthened communication by means of internet, phone, WeChat and videoconference, compiled a written application for creating a national cultural heritage utilization and demonstration zone, and completed the preliminary design of Chu Jinan City Archaeological Site Park and the early work of the security engineering of Yutai Mountain Ancient Tombs. Jingzhou has submitted the application to NCHA online.

Cultural heritage protection is the key and premise of the creation work. During the epidemic period, Jingzhou replaced regional management with grid inspection, took the cultural heritage patrol as a key force, and changed patrollers into "grid members", to ensure assignment of responsibility for every tomb. So far Jingzhou has dispatched 15,120 patrollers and not reported any cultural heritage safety accident.

During the epidemic, Jingzhou also supported cultural heritage protection by high-tech means, and deployed drones to patrol field cultural heritage, to reduce blind spots in patrol, and provide accurate and detailed scientific data for future ancient site protection and management. Besides, the safety protection system of Baling Mountain Ancient Tombs operated soundly and conducted all-day omni-directional monitoring of 403 ancient tombs to ensure the safety of cultural heritage.