The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recently sent a team to north-west Gansu province to see which sites on the Chinese part of the route should be included in its prestigious cultural heritage listing, the Xinhua news agency said.
UNESCO officials inspected landscapes and cultural relics between Tianshui city and Jiayu Pass in the province.
During the 10-day inspection tour, UNESCO experts classified cultural relics along the route into five categories including religious sites, towns of military importance and post houses.
China placed the Silk Road on a tentative list of sites it wanted UNESCO to consider for listing in 1994. The inspection would speed up the listing, a Chinese expert said.
With a history stretching back more than 2,000 years, the Silk Road was a famous land trade corridor linking the Asian and European continents between the second century BC and the eighth and ninth centuries.
Starting from the ancient city of Xi'an in north-west China's Shaanxi province, it passed through South and Central Asia and wound its way through the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea to Rome over a total length of more than 7,000 kilometres (4,340 miles), including 4,000 kilometres in China.
Serving as an important conduit for economic and cultural exchanges between the East and the West, the Silk Road connected the ancient Chinese, Indian, Persian, Arabic, Greek and Roman civilisations, playing a crucial role in the exchanges between the Eastern and Western civilisations.
The Silk Road in Gansu province totals 1,600 kilometres. The route is dotted with many famous places of historic interest including the Maijishan Grottoes, which is known as an ancient oriental sculpture gallery, the Labrang Lamasery and the Mogao Grottoes.
Last year, UNESCO sent a group of experts to inspect the cultural relics at Dunhuang, Turpan and Kashgar cities in the part of the route in Gansu province and north-west Xinjiang region.
There are 788 sites on the World Heritage list, which includes some of the most valuable cultural and natural sites in the world.
Being listed generally draws tourists and boosts revenue for local areas.
China ranks third, after Spain and Italy, in the number of sites it has on the list.