What China can learn: Let the public feel the urge

Preservation of ancient villages should not focus solely on architecture. Reasonable use of the surrounding environment, including forest, rivers, villages and even cities should also be taken account.

"How can the government allocate limited resources? What needs to be established and invested first? These decisions must be made with a broader, wider and long-term mindset," said Wang.

China's inadequacy of relevant policies, regulations and necessary technologies to save vanishing traditional villages do threaten their survival. However, to Wang, the most important lesson China can learn from abroad in preserving traditional villages is to better interpret the meaning of their protection in a way that can resonate with people's hearts.

"Their interpretations are not too grand and detached, nor have they evolved to suit the eyes and ears of outsiders. Instead, they are localized and closely-knitted with the lives of people actually living there. What we must realize is that we need to protect and preserve traditional villages not just to save their physical spaces," said Wang.

So what are we saving? Perhaps it is a sense of nostalgia, a nation's history and the root of a civilization.