China has a great number of cultural relics with historical, scientific, social and economic value. The conservation of cultural relics gets strong support from the country, but only under conditions of reasonable allocation and utilization of resources can the conservation of cultural relics be truly realized. With changes in cultural relic conservation concepts in China, preventive conservation is becoming more and more important, and the relationship between the safety of cultural relics and their environment has attracted more and more attention. This article, which examines the relationship between cultural relics and their environment, divides the environment of cultural relics into three categories:natural, semi-exposed natural and artificial environments. Then, according to the needs of archaeological excavation, building preservation, cultural relic restoration and display, this article analyzes the mutual transformation of the three cultural relic environments and related problems. Recommended standards for the conservation environments of all kinds of cultural relics have been assigned in China on the basis of materials of cultural relics. These standards have played an important role in promoting the conservation of cultural relics in China; however, the existing conservation methods as well as the standards sometimes neglect the differences in their original cultural environments, resulting in the limitation of their applicability. By discussing the relationship between cultural environments and cultural relic status and the influences on cultural relics, this article advances strategies for the preventive conservation of cultural relics under different environmental conditions.