General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that the Grand Canal is a precious legacy left by our ancestors and a flowing culture, making it important for the protection, inheritance and utilization of the country’s longest man-made river. In recent years, Jiangsu has promoted the construction of the Jiangsu section of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt, and strived to show the regional cultural essence along the Canal in a panoramic view, leaving behind a distinct Jiangsu imprint for the millennium-old Canal.
The interior section of the Grand Canal in Huai’an city is an important part of the ancient Beijing-Hangzhou Canal. Now it has become a landscape river in the city. Looking out the window, you can feel the rich canal culture and the local customs on both sides of the river for thousands of years.
The numerous historical sites and cultural landscapes are the distinctive features of the Jiangsu section of the Grand Canal.
6 sections of the Canal are listed in the world cultural heritages. Spanning 325 kilometers, they account for one third of the entire river line.
The 22 heritage sites account for 40% of the entire line. The richness, quantity and value of the categories cover almost all the elements of the Grand Canal cultural heritage.
In recent years, in order to make the Grand Canal show the beauty of culture, Jiangsu has made overall plans for the protection and inheritance by formulating the "Jiangsu Province Grand Canal Cultural Protection Heritage Utilization Plan" and "The Grand Canal National Culture Park Jiangsu Section Construction Protection Plan".
Jiangsu has also organized provincial-level special plans such as the Canal Heritage Cultural Heritage Protection, Cultural Value Interpretation, Ecological Corridor Construction, River Water System Management and Management, Modern Shipping Construction Development, Cultural Tourism Integration Development to promote the high quality construction of the Canal Cultural Belt.
Xu Yi, an official in Changzhou Economic Development Zone
In the next stage of development
we will join the three century-old factories
on the northern bank of the canal
to launch an industrial landscape corridor
John Echlin, Swiss Echlin Planning Consultant Workshop
The biggest advantage of Suzhou
is that the Grand Canal culture
is connected with people's lives
The next thing to do is to make
the cultural heritage and old roads
along the way to do some open planning
I think the value of the Grand Canal is more
attractive and more capable of being highlighted
At the same time, various regions have promoted the construction of the Grand Canal cultural belt with the launch of major projects. The China Grand Canal Museum which was started in the Sanwan Scenic Area of Yangzhou section of the Canal was the first batch of key projects in the Jiangsu section of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park. With a total land area of 200 mu and a total construction area of 80,000 square meters, it consists of the main tower the Canal Tower and the museum. It is expected to open to the public in 2021.
Ding Lei, an official with the Sanwan Scenic Area of Yangzhou
hrough the construction of
the Grand Canal Museum
I hope that more people will
come to China and come to Yangzhou
to learn some stories related to the Chinese Canal
At the end of 2018, Suqian City started the construction of the Zaohe Longwang Ancient Town Project with a core area of about 1 square kilometer that will create a characteristic tourist town and a livable town.
Xuzhou City is striving to create a world-class Han culture heritage and tourism destination by presenting the characteristics of the canal culture. Zhenjiang has invested more than 3 billion yuan to implement cultural heritage protection and restoration projects such as Jingkou Gate and Danyang Ximen Street. Wuxi has accelerated the promotion of a number of engineering projects such as the protection and display of the Hongshan National Archaeological Site Park in a bid to inherit historical memories and create cultural signs.
The Grand Canal, about 1,764 kilometers long, is the longest and greatest man-made waterway in ancient China, far surpassing the next two of the world: the Suez and Panama Canals. With 27 sections and 58 historical sites, it was placed on the UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2014. Running from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province in the south to Beijing in the north and connecting different river systems, Grand Canal contributed greatly to ensuring that the Chinese primary economy thrived in past dynasties. Now more than 2,000 years old, some parts of the canal are still in use, mainly functioning as a water-diversion conduit.
(source:ourjiangsu.com)