For me, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is not just a historical monument, it is still alive and living in my daily life: shopping malls in Ledi Port by the canal, watching movies in Canal World, walking on the Canal Greenway, taking a boat to Wulinmen at the Canal Wharf, and shopping in Xiaohezhi Street...... When I'm not idle, I often spend my time by the canal.
Walking along the Grand Canal on the weekends is one of my favourite ways to relax. I like to walk along the canal when the sun is about to set, watching the sunset reflect on the river, sparkling and mottled with shadows. The boat sails quietly on the river, the waves crashing on the steps, and the sound of rushing water on the pier creates a quiet and peaceful atmosphere.
Canal cruises
One summer, heavy rain lasted for three days and three nights. The city's rivers swelled. Before the rain stopped, we couldn't wait to come to the canal and make a special trip to see what the huge canal looked like. Although it is not as vast as the smoke and waves of the Qiantang River, it is rare enough for us northerners from areas with little water and rain. Instead of the usual calm waves, this is when we see the canal with strong water and turbulent undercurrents. Many of the piers were submerged, leaving only bollards popping up on the water.
The flooded North Shinseki Wharf
The flooded North Shinseki Wharf
On that occasion, the river that overflowed the embankment also flooded the courtyard of a teahouse on the east bank of the canal. The water in the yard was knee-deep, and there were a lot of fish and shrimp intruding, and me, my 7-year-old Xixi, and another older child, the three of us worked together to contain a large crucian carp. I caught it twice with my bare hands, but both times it slipped out of my hand because it was too slippery. Eventually, we used a broken umbrella as a fishing net to catch the big crucian carp, and the children were so stunned that they couldn't believe their eyes and cast adoring glances at me.
However, when we were about to go back, we stood on the Gongchen Bridge and threw the crucian carp into the canal and released it.
In the courtyard of the flooded teahouse, the crucian carp was caught under the camphor tree
My wife's hometown is in Cangzhou, Hebei Province, and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal just passes through her small city. When I was walking along the canal, I was standing on the Gongchen Bridge in Hangzhou, and I saw a big boat coming from the south, and I often jokingly said to her, 'Ah Hong, don't you want to go home? 』
Grand Canal cargo ships
Although it was a joke, since the first time she heard my joke, every time she stood on the Gongchen Bridge, she would look affectionately at the boat passing from south to north, all the way north, until the boat disappeared from view. Over time, going to Gongchen Bridge seemed to be like returning to her hometown in the north thousands of miles away, which made her feel homesick and homesick.
Gongchen Bridge
Spring goes to autumn, year after year, since 2017 from Hebei to Hangzhou, now it is the seventh year. In the past seven years, in addition to being busy with work, I have been walking around this beautiful city of Hangzhou. As soon as I have leisure, I take Ah Hong and Xixi to the canal for a walk, and when I am tired, I sit down on a recliner, quietly look at the clouds, the water, the boat, the flowers in spring and the fallen leaves in autumn, look at everything in front of me, and let the time go by.
Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal
In fact, I have long known that the water of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal cannot flow to Cangzhou. When the canal reached Jining, Shandong, it was blocked by locks, and the terrain rose by 40 meters, so it could not flow at all. However, I didn't tell Ah Hong about this, for fear that because the locks in Jining blocked the flow of the canal, it also blocked her affectionate gaze, so that she could not see the direction of her home.