Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition
February 2021 Grand Canal Heritage Trail Above: Just after the Spring Festival holiday, the freight on the Hangzhou section of the Grand Canal has begun to be busy in the south of Hangzhou Gongchen Bridge. Spring sprouts along the heritage trail and flowers begin to bloom. Photo by Xu Ting Below: On the Tonghui River in Beijing, also located at the Qingfeng Gate in the center of the city, the river surface has just shed ice. Qi Xin photo
March 2021 Grand Canal Heritage Trail Above: On March 16, Hangzhou entered the spring rainy season. Spring color is no longer just new green. Among the cascading greenery, people tour the Xiangji Temple Pier where the Grand Canal Heritage Trail passes. Photo by Xu Ting Below: On March 18, on the heritage trail on the west side of qingfengzha on the Tonghui River in Beijing, spring flowers bloomed, willow branches revealed new shoots, and peach and plum branches were ready to bloom. Qi Xin photo
Inside the "Grand Canal Themed Post Office" near Qingfeng Gate in Beijing, the development of the Grand Canal Heritage Trail over the years is documented and demonstrated. This cultural heritage dissemination project aims to transform public cultural resources into real and complete experiential products. Many surveyors volunteer to dedicate themselves. Zhang Hailei is also a journalist and now works in Chengdu. She made a special trip to the theme post office in Beijing and found the recorded image of her doing the public welfare survey at that time. Hangzhou boat photo
Choosing a season and walking and observing along the long distances along the Grand Canal is a great way to appreciate the heritage values of the Grand Canal and a great way to gain an in-depth understanding of the first standard of World Heritage.
Between Beijing and Hangzhou
Even in the most shaded corners, you can feel the breath of spring returning to the earth. The Tonghui River runs past Beijing's busiest central business district. The green willow branches on the side of qingfeng gate dance with the wind, bringing long-awaited greenery.
Spring 2021 feels like it's coming early. But temperatures around March 18 still haven't exceeded 15 degrees Celsius. Spring blossoms, peach plums with buds. After a long winter, epidemic and sand, people can't wait to catch the long-lost spring weather, and people who exercise on both sides of this famous canal road are endless.
In Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, on March 16, spring on the river is already a different scene. Gongchen Bridge is the southern terminus of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and an important symbol of the cultural heritage of the Grand Canal in China. The heritage trail south of the Gongchen Bridge is lined with willow smoke and lush greenery. After walking slowly by the canal for an hour, I was sweating a little. The magnolia and purple-leaved plum flowers that were dotted with branches at the beginning of the month have been withered by the spring rain, and now new leaves have replaced the flowers and covered all the branches.
One flower after another is still blooming! The four seasons of Hangzhou are not short of green, superimposed with new greens and flower clusters, and in the spring, they spread freely at the southern end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. When the people in the north were still looking forward to it, the girls in Hangzhou city already had the sadness of spring and passing.
According to the provisions of the World Heritage Convention, criterion (i) in the first place is "a masterpiece representing the creative spirit of mankind". Since the inscription of the Grand Canal of China on the World Heritage List in 2014, it is rare for China to comply with item (i) in its subsequent applications. The Grand Canal explains almost verbatim what it means to be "first": space-time is large enough to record the mutual game and adaptation of man and nature, which still exists today.
After the Grand Canal became a World Heritage Site, it has been a problem that continues to this day based on authentic and complete value interpretation methods and products. The east-west canal runs from Luoyang, Henan, in the west to Ningbo, Zhejiang, spanning longitudes of 112°25′ to 121°45′ east longitude; the north-south canal runs north to Beijing and south to Hangzhou, Zhejiang, with latitudes ranging from 30°12′ to 40°00′ north latitude; that is, in the years when the Grand Canal was continuously connected, the fleet transporting grain needed to cross 10 latitudes north. How should such a grand and exciting project be experienced?
"The Line where the Flowers Bloom"
The recording process of comparing the opening of flowers between Beijing and Hangzhou began before the Spring Festival.
In early February, the festive celebrations approaching the Spring Festival appear on people's faces, and the red plums bloom on the Grand Canal Heritage Trail south of the Gongchen Bridge. By the 20th, the maximum temperature in Hangzhou exceeded 20 ° C, and along the canal, "the willow color was close but there was none", and the willow wind blew the cold, blowing people's clothes thin, and blowing up the light and fluttering clothes.
And almost the same day in Beijing, it is still cold in spring. By the time the spring flowers bloom, it is already mid-to-late March. Between Beijing and Hangzhou, there are more than 1,700 kilometers of river channels that can be followed today. Between 10 latitudes, the spring that goes north takes about 1 month.
There are special requirements for this experiment, which can describe the spring flower: the location chosen should be on a route that can be walked continuously; it can be hiked or cycled – even if it is driven – most of the routes should be within the heritage area. This is actually a study tour route that the Grand Canal Heritage Trail surveyors have been trying to achieve: if, in February, when the flowers bloom, from Hangzhou, along the banks of the Grand Canal all the way north to Beijing, in fact, every day in the spring.
This maturing study tour takes about 30 to 40 spring days. This is close to the rhythm of the smoothest time of caoyun. Thus, in the minds of surveyors, this Grand Canal heritage trail has been described as "the route of the first bloom of flowers".
At both ends of the Gongchen Bridge and qingfeng Gate
The Gongchen Bridge on the Grand Canal in Hangzhou and the Qingfeng Locks on the Tonghui River in Beijing are also important nodes. Starting from Gongchen Bridge to the south to the north, from qingfeng Gate to the east to the west, all have a good ornamental and value experience significance.
For more than 400 years, Gongchen Bridge has still been bustling with people, and in addition to its original transportation function, it has become a striking landmark of the Grand Canal. Gongchenqiao Pier to the south to Xinyifang Wharf, only three or four kilometers of canal heritage trails, you can pass through the Qiaoxi Historic District, Xiaohe Zhijie Historic District, Dadu Road Historic District 3 cultural tourism blocks. On April 3, 2020, the mascot of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou 2022 was officially released to the world, and the three good partners of Zhen zhen, lianlian and Chenchen symbolized the three world heritage sites of Hangzhou Liangzhu, West Lake and Canal, respectively, of which "Chenchen" was named from the Gongchen Bridge at the southern end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.
It is worth mentioning that the starting point of the Grand Canal Heritage Trail (Beijing-Hangzhou Section) is located on the east side of the Gongchen Bridge. When the Grand Canal had not yet been successfully applied for heritage, the surveyors positioned a huge paving stone on the east side of the Gongchen Bridge as a 0-kilometer sign of the Grand Canal Heritage Trail (Beijing-Hangzhou Section).
The Tonghui River belongs to the Grand Canal system, although it is not included in the core heritage section, but the site of qingfeng Locks, which was built in 1292, clearly marks the historical direction of the Grand Canal. This section of the river has lost its navigable function and has become an urban drainage channel. From qingfeng gates to the east, continuously crossing the fourth and fifth ring roads, on the south bank of the artificial canalized river channel, the newly built landscape road and the original water conservancy engineering channel can be connected together, and it is completely possible to ride all the way into the territory of Tongzhou District. From the Bali Bridge to the east, start to enter the Heritage River section of the Grand Canal, which is also a very rare section of the Grand Canal in Beijing.
The Beijing Grand Canal Theme Post Office is located not far from qingfeng Gate.
Recommendable water transport experience
The Hangzhou Canal still retains the function of public transportation. If you want to experience the heritage trail from Gongchen Bridge to Wulinmen Wharf, in addition to walking, cycling and other methods, you can also choose authentic inland river shipping. It's also a rarely recommended way of walking on the Grand Canal Heritage Trail: using water transportation.
From Gongchen Bridge to the south by boat, it takes only more than ten minutes to reach xinyifang wharf, and in the nearby Dadu Road Historic District, there is the Xiangji Temple, which has the reputation of "the first incense of the canal into Hangzhou".
In 2004, the first water bus departed from Xinyifang Wharf, making Hangzhou the first city in China to open water traffic on the canal artery in the urban area. Subsequently, one route after another was opened, carrying citizens and tourists into the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, Shangtang River, East River and other sections of Hangzhou's inland rivers. During the Spring Festival in 2021, the Hangzhou Canal Water Bus sent a total of 1,074 departures and transported 27,424 passengers, an increase of 20% compared with the Spring Festival in 2019.
Become a new study route
If more surveyors can join, connecting and comparing more nodes along the line, then the "line of flower blooming" will be more accurate. The practice of the Grand Canal Heritage Trail has been going on for years. However, due to the great changes on both sides of the strait, many areas are updated year by year, which has led to continuous changes in routes. At a time when various trails and research themes are frequent, it is particularly important to adhere to the full line of value-based real experience planning.
In May 2020, public welfare surveyors joined forces to update the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal Heritage Trail from Beijing to Jiangsu again, proving that the open experience environment of the whole line is acceptable - even if many sections are upgrading the landscape, people are more likely to travel long distances without spending money to buy tickets; the riverside industrial areas and docks that were previously difficult to reach are now easier to reach, with more canal towns, canal squares and countless roads named after "canals".
The public welfare surveyors on the heritage trails of the Grand Canal have also attracted the attention of the outside world and have become the object of imitation by researchers. Traveling on both sides of the Grand Canal all year round, some behavioral characteristics have gradually formed: traveling in the world based on mutual respect, keeping records at any time, being good at planning routes based on true and complete principles, loving cycling or walking, and even becoming part of daily life, willing to help, willing to dedicate and share...
(Qi Xin, Xu Ting: Journalist Grand Canal Heritage Trail Public Welfare Surveyor)
China's Grand Canal inscribed on the World Heritage Criteria (link)
The Grand Canal of China meets item (i)(iii)(iv)(vi) of the World Heritage Inscription Criteria, where -
Conformity to Criterion (i): A masterpiece that represents the creative spirit of mankind
The Grand Canal is a masterpiece of super-large-scale water conservancy projects in human history. The Grand Canal, with its rare scale of time and space, proves the wisdom, determination and courage of human beings, and is an outstanding example of the extraordinary creativity of human beings unimaginable under the technological system of agricultural civilization. (Qi Xin, Xu Ting)
People's Daily Overseas Edition ( 2021-03-22, 11th edition)