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Suqian City, Jiangsu Province, the banks of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal are full of greenery. Photo by Xu Jianghai (People’s Vision)
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Grand Canal Museum of China, Yangzhou. Photo by Meng Delong (People’s Vision)
Grand Canal Museum of China, Yangzhou. Photo by Meng Delong (People’s Vision)
The Grand Canal is composed of three parts: the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the Sui-Tang Grand Canal and the Zhejiang East Canal, with a total length of nearly 3,200 kilometers and more than 2,500 years since it was excavated, it is one of the most representative cultural symbols of the Chinese nation, a precious material and spiritual wealth left to us by our ancestors, and has unique historical and cultural value.
Since the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, it has carried out the “Supervision of Key Proposals for Promoting the Construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt”, organized research on the protection, inheritance and utilization of the Grand Canal culture, and held a biweekly consultation forum on “Promoting the Construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt”… Fully tapping the rich historical and cultural resources of the Grand Canal and protecting, inheriting, and making good use of the Grand Canal, a precious heritage left to us by our ancestors, has always been the focus of attention of the CPPCC members, and has condensed the painstaking efforts and wisdom of many CPPCC members. Promoting the protection and utilization of the Grand Canal has become the cultural sentiment and historical responsibility of CPPCC members and CPPCC members at all levels in provinces and cities along the Grand Canal.
Build the Grand Canal into a river with water, a river with clear water, a river with water conservancy value, and a river with cultural connotations
On April 28 this year, after many days of concentrated water replenishment, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal finally achieved the first full water opening in a century.
To promote the construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt, water is the lifeblood and foundation. The functions of the Grand Canal such as flood control and drainage, water transmission and water supply, inland navigation, and ecological landscape all depend on water to realize. How to achieve water and ecological improvement in the main sections of the canal is an issue that CPPCC members have always been highly concerned about.
In February 2019, the Central Office and the State Office issued the “Planning Outline for the Cultural Protection, Inheritance and Utilization of the Grand Canal” (hereinafter referred to as the “Planning Outline”), proposing to scientifically allocate and optimize the dispatch of water resources and reshape the reality carrier of the Grand Canal’s “river with water”; At the same time, green ecological corridors will be built on both sides of the main axis of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt and other watery river sections with conditions, and a green ecological belt with beautiful mountains and rivers will be constructed.
Before and after the promulgation of the Outline, from September 2018 to May 2019, Liu Qibao, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, led a research team to Shandong, Jiangsu and Cangzhou, Hebei Province to conduct research and build consensus on promoting regional economic and social development along the Grand Canal.
During the investigation, the committee members saw that the reality of the canal water is: except for the urban landscape section of the canal section north of the Yellow River, all rivers are dry and all water is polluted; The water quality of the canal section south of the Yellow River is generally poor; Conflicts between canal flood control, drainage, water supply, shipping, environment, ecology and other multi-functional functions continue to emerge.
“To protect and inherit and make good use of the Grand Canal, we must first do a good job in water and build the Grand Canal into a river with water, a river with clear water, a river with water conservancy value, and a river with cultural connotations.” Zhu Chengqing, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said that in view of the actual water shortage in the north and the current situation of groundwater over-extraction funnel in northern China, external water transfer is an inevitable choice. She suggested speeding up the improvement of the water transmission capacity of the eastern route of the south-to-north water diversion, giving priority to the protection of water resources, making overall plans for the function of water, and planning the use value of the Grand Canal in contemporary times.
The section of the canal south of the Yellow River still plays an important shipping role, but there are problems such as poor water quality and urgent restoration of the ecosystem. “To grasp the construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt, we must first grasp ecological construction.” Sun Qingju, deputy director of the Culture, History and Study Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said, “The ecological construction of the Grand Canal must first control water, drive the greening of the river bank and the purification of the air with water control, and finally realize the construction of the overall ecological corridor of the Grand Canal.” ”
On May 24, 2019, the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) held a biweekly consultation forum to make suggestions and provide advice on promoting the implementation of the relevant contents of the Planning Outline. Many CPPCC members who participated in the preliminary investigation and study participated in this biweekly consultation forum with the research results.
At this forum, the committee members held that the “river chief system” of the canal is a system worthy of recognition, and the “river chief system” has been fully covered in all provinces, municipalities, and regions along the Grand Canal. “The river chiefs at all levels of the Grand Canal should have names and responsibilities in place, and form a comprehensive improvement plan of ‘one river, one policy’.” Liu Jiayi, deputy director of the Culture, History and Study Committee of the CPPCC National Committee, said: “All localities should proceed from reality and realize that there is water, water, and navigation in different regions, stages, and standards. ”
Do a good job in the protection, inheritance and utilization of the Grand Canal culture, and awaken the cultural memory of the Grand Canal
“Looking at Tongzhou City from a distance, what a big ship, a high burning lighthouse, a big mast… Sail the boat. On June 24 this year, at the Yangwa Lock of the North Canal located at the junction of Beijing-Hebei, a song “Canal Horn” kicked off the opening ceremony of the Beijing-Hebei cruise ship of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, marking the realization of the interconnection of 62 kilometers of the Beijing-Hebei section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.
There are 8 provinces and cities along the Grand Canal, including many sites, ancient towns and cultural heritage items, and such a huge cultural heritage needs to be protected, in a holistic, salvage and preventive manner. To protect, inherit, and make good use of the Grand Canal, members of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference have been campaigning for it.
In 2017, shortly after the end of the Fifth Session of the 12th CPPCC National Committee, the CPPCC National Committee finally determined 41 key supervision and handling proposal topics after screening from the 4,156 proposals that were reviewed and filed. Among them, “elevating the construction of the ‘Grand Canal Economic Belt’ to a national strategy” was identified as one of the 14 key proposals supervised in the form of research. Since September 2018, the Culture, History and Study Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference has organized in-depth research on Grand Canal sites, ancient towns and cultural heritage projects in eight provinces and cities along the Grand Canal three times, and put forward many valuable opinions and suggestions for the protection, inheritance and utilization of the Grand Canal through biweekly consultation forums and briefings on key issues of concern.
During the investigation, experts and committee members found that due to historical and other reasons, there are problems in the construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt such as insufficient protection, insufficient excavation of cultural connotations, blind excessive development and construction, and obvious homogenization. At the subsequent biweekly consultation forum of the CPPCC National Committee, 12 members, experts and scholars made concentrated responses to the problems found in the investigation, and 98 members actively spoke on the platform for CPPCC members to perform their duties on the mobile performance of duties, and put forward opinions and suggestions. Responsible comrades of the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and other relevant departments responded on the spot.
——In response to the problem of insufficient influence of canal cultural and tourism integration, the responsible comrade of the National Development and Reform Commission said that it will deepen the research and implementation of major projects, build a regional coordinated development mechanism, promote the implementation of a number of demonstration projects for integrated development, and strengthen the planning and formulation of standards.
——In response to the problem that the cultural heritage of the Grand Canal has not formed a perfect, standardized and accurate database, the responsible comrade of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage said that the next step will be to consider the collection and collation of cultural relics data along the entire Grand Canal and effectively include it in the work agenda.
——In response to the support of representative items of intangible cultural heritage along the Grand Canal and representative inheritors, the responsible comrades of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that they will coordinate and strengthen the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage of the Grand Canal, especially in the construction of the four-level intangible cultural heritage list system along the Grand Canal and the overall protection of cultural ecology along the Grand Canal.
On September 11, 2020, the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) held a briefing on key issues of concern around the theme of “Promoting the Construction of the Great Wall, the Grand Canal and the Long March National Cultural Park”. The meeting specially invited the responsible comrades of the National Development and Reform Commission to introduce the implementation of the task of overcoming the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic and effectively and orderly promoting the construction of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park, helping members to understand the government and further promote relevant work.
Let the people feel a real sense of gain from the construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt
Promoting the construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt involves urban and rural construction, water conservancy and transportation, ecological environment, cultural relics protection, non-genetic inheritance, cultural tourism and other fields, which is a complex system engineering. But in the final analysis, the construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt is to meet the people’s growing needs for a better life and return the Grand Canal to the people.
During the investigation, the committee members found that some ancient towns and villages along the canal did not adhere to people-oriented planning and construction, so that the people could feel a real sense of gain from the construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt, and there were phenomena such as emphasizing “things” over “people”, emphasizing “customers” over “subjects” in functional formats, and emphasizing “hard” over “soft” in cultural excavation.
Jin Yongwei, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and president of the Tianjin Academy of Educational Sciences, suggested that the wishes of local residents should be fully respected and the close ties between the Grand Canal and village residents should be re-established. Encourage the people along the route to participate spontaneously, so that the legends, unique skills, flavors and customs of the canal can return to people’s daily life.
Du Wei, a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, found during his investigation in Zhejiang that with the deep integration of the cultural industry and the real economy, more than 70 characteristic towns have gathered along the Zhejiang section of the Grand Canal, which has become an important carrier for the cultural protection, inheritance and utilization of the Grand Canal, and injected new cultural elements into the Zhejiang section of the Grand Canal. “It is necessary to further give play to the role of characteristic towns and promote the organic integration of cultural protection, inheritance and utilization of the Grand Canal.” Du Wei suggested that historical classic industries, fashion cultural and creative towns and other characteristic towns should be used as carriers to promote the protection and inheritance of Chinese time-honored brands and the development of fashion, cultural and creative industries along the canal.
“The protection of the ancient village of the canal ancient town should let local residents play the leading role” “We must seriously implement the concept of ‘jointly grasping large-scale protection and not engaging in large-scale development'”… With the deepening of the protection and utilization of the Grand Canal, the committee members are still campaigning for the protection, inheritance, and utilization of the Grand Canal culture. The preservation of a number of precious historical and cultural relics along the Grand Canal is inseparable from the efforts of previous CPPCC members.
Today, the protection, inheritance and utilization of the culture of the Grand Canal are ushering in the best period. The committee members said that promoting the protection and utilization of the Grand Canal has become a cultural sentiment and historical responsibility of the CPPCC members, and they believe that as long as we unremittingly grasp the work of protecting, inheriting, and utilizing the Grand Canal culture, the Grand Canal of China will certainly be full of vitality and dazzling brilliance.