Representatives from the canal cities of various countries spoke highly of Jiangsu's experience in promoting the protection, inheritance and utilization of the Grand Canal and contributed their ideas to the future development of the world's canals during their participation at the 2018 World Canal Cities Forum that was held in Yangzhou on Thursday and Friday.
The forum consists of one main forum and four sub-forums. Based on the theme "protection, inheritance and use of the world canal cityculture," the forum showcases the "China Action" for the protection, inheritance and utilization of the Grand Canal and shares China’s cultural practices in the promotion of the protection of the canal world heritage.
The four sub-forums focus on topics such as museum construction, ecological construction and conservation in the world's canal cities. As the province with the largest number of World Heritage sites along the Grand Canal, Jiangsu has been at the forefront in terms of cultural heritage preservation, cultural value development, ecological protection and restoration, and environmental construction along the route. These efforts were hailed by guests from all over the world.
The guests expressed their views on how to further strengthen the protection and utilization of the cultural resources of the canal. They advocated that efforts should be made to establish the overall protection concept of the canal and effectively promote the construction of the canal culture park, the museum and the follow-up application.
At the same time, it is necessary to promote legislative protection and take into account protection of cultural relics, inheritance of cultural heritages, water conservancy construction andtourism promotion so as to enhance the protection through use and promote protection in use.
The participants also noted that in the future they will strengthen the exchanges and cooperation with China from the aspects of tourism, industry and ecology, realize the linkage and complementation of the canal culture inheritance and development, and jointly promote the sustainable development of the world’s canals.
China's Grand Canal was inscribed on the World Heritage List on June 24,2014 by the World Heritage Committee, which convened its 38th annual session in Doha, Qatar.
The Grand Canal is well known in the world as a great water conservancy project, and it is an outstanding masterpiece of the human beings, according to unesco.org.
(Source: ourjiangsu.com)
