[2] At this conference, China and five Central Asia republics, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, agreed to make a joint application in 2010.

[2] On March 28, 2008, China submitted a tentative list of 48 Silk Road sites to UNESCO for consideration as cultural heritage.

[4] On January 20, 2010, India submitted a tentative list of Silk Road sites divided into 12 components.

[8] At the end of 2011, UNESCO proposed that due to the vast scale of the Silk Road project that the application be divided into corridors.

[2] On June 22, 2014, at the 38th meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Doha, Qatar, the Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor application was approved.

The sites include capital cities and palace complexes of various empires and kingdoms, trading settlements, Buddhist cave temples, ancient paths, posthouses, mountain passes, beacon towers, sections of the Great Wall, fortifications, tombs and religious buildings.

[2] The sites are categorized into four regions along the Silk Road by ICOMOS, which assessed eligibility for the World Heritage inscription:[10][11] 1.