The third season of  The Nation's Greatest Treasures will premiere on Dec 6. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Both of the previous seasons was led by the Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, and was joined by a key provincial-level museum in China.

Nevertheless, Yu Lei, its director of the show, said on Monday that the third season will have some change to better reflect the development of millennia's Chinese civilization through a wider time span of the venues.

Consequently, nine key historical heritage sites are selected for the third season. The Palace Museum, which embraces the 600th anniversary marking its constructional completion this year, remains while the other eight are newcomers for the show.

They include 3,300-year-old Yinxu Ruins in Henan province, whereabouts of the earliest known Chinese written characters were excavated, Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, Gansu province, the splendid Buddhist grottoes ranging from 4th to 14th centuries, and 1,300-year-old Potala Palace in Lhasa, the Tibet autonomous region.