Thousand-Year Grand Canal Revitalized in China’s Cangzhou after 10 years’ recognition of UNESCO World Heritage

CANGZHOU, China, June 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The year 2024 marked the 10th anniversary of Grand Canal’s UNESCO world heritage listing. The success of the application has revitalized the Grand Canal, which is a recognition of its historical value and an expectation for its future protection and development. Cangzhou, Hebei Province, has achieved fruitful results in protecting, inheriting and utilizing the Grand Canal culture.

Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the ancient canal with the longest mileage and largest project in the world, is one of the oldest canals.  Known as one of the three great projects of ancient China together with the Great Wall and the Canal, and is used to this day, it is a great project created by the ancient Chinese people, and is one of the symbols of China’s cultural status.

The Grand Canal winds 216 kilometers in the land of Cangzhou, it not only nourishes the hot land of the Lion City of Cangzhou, but also shapes the spiritual character of the city. The prosperity of Cangzhou cannot be separated from the gift of the Grand Canal. From a major transportation town in the Ming and Qing dynasties to a logistics hub and cultural carrier, the canal is like a blood vessel of the city, flowing with economic vitality and carrying cultural confidence.

The water veins are connected to the cultural veins, and the cultural energy and popularity are intermingled. Over the past ten years, Cangzhou has responded positively, making full use of the Grand Canal resources within its borders to create a unique canal cultural tourism. Just past this Dragon Boat Festival, the dance unicorn non-legacy show, Cangzhou Square matchmaking activities, Jinshi topography experience …… a series of colorful cultural activities in the Grand Canal wonderful staged.

In 2022, Cangzhou formulated the “Grand Canal National Cultural Park (Cangzhou Section) Construction and Protection Plan”, proposing to take the Grand Canal as a link, focusing on building 9 tourist attractions and resorts, 8 cultural industry parks, 15 ancient towns and villages and cultural and tourism towns, as well as 33 cultural and ecological parks.2023, with the opening of the old street in Nanchuan, the opening of the Sixth Garden Expo in Hebei Province in Cangzhou and other nodes, a large number of tourists flock to Cangzhou.

 In order to better spread the canal culture, Cangzhou actively participates in all kinds of tourism expositions, deepens the integration of agriculture, culture and tourism, and creates highlights such as Wuqiao acrobatics and rural tourism demonstration zones. The water tour route of the Cangzhou section of the Grand Canal connects many historical and cultural nodes, providing travelers with a rich variety of tour options.

Cangzhou has not only enhanced its image as a tourist destination, but also contributed to the synergistic development of Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei culture and tourism.

Standing on a new historical starting point, Cangzhou will continue to polish the cultural “golden card” of the Grand Canal, write a new chapter for the high-quality development of cultural and tourism undertakings, so that more people will understand and fall in love with Cangzhou through the Grand Canal, and let the Grand Canal, which has flowed for thousands of years, blossom into a new era of luster!

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SOURCE Cangzhou Municipal Government