Donkey rolling, cloud cake, winning cake… A thousand-year-old Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal not only connects Beijing and Hangzhou geographically, but also creates a long history and culture between Beijing and Hangzhou, giving birth to countless famous places along the canal. On June 15th, the opening ceremony of the 3rd Hangzhou Grand Canal World Cultural Heritage Protection and Publicity Week and the “Taste of Beijing-Hangzhou Canal” activity co-sponsored by Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Gardens and Cultural Relics (Canal Comprehensive Protection Committee) and Gongshu District People’s Government were held in Hangzhou Canal Cultural Square. At the scene, the food of Beijing and Hangzhou exchanged and collided with each other, building a colorful canal cultural exchange event.
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the successful application of the Grand Canal of China, and in recent years, the attention of all sectors of society to the Grand Canal has been increasing, and the Grand Canal Cultural Belt has been elevated to a national strategy. With a history of more than 2,500 years, China’s Grand Canal has moved from the river of transportation to the river of culture. Many cultural heritages along the route, such as food culture and opera culture, have begun to be revitalized. Since 2017, Hangzhou has held the Grand Canal Protection Publicity Week for three consecutive years.
The traditional Chinese food culture is one of the five major cultural forms of the national Grand Canal cultural protection, inheritance and utilization. This year’s 3rd Hangzhou Grand Canal Protection Publicity Week highlighted the use of food as a cultural carrier and food as a bridge to promote the cultural communication and inheritance of the canal between Beijing and Hangzhou.
At the opening ceremony, time-honored pastry and gourmet brands in Beijing and Hangzhou, media representatives and citizen representatives tasted pastries and exchanged skills on the spot, and well-known traditional dim sum masters in Hangzhou demonstrated their skills on the spot to spread the canal food culture; The inheritance of culture requires the participation of all citizens. The on-site food and culture market set up Beijing-style pastry street, Hangzhou Style Noodle Alley, Canal Food God Shop and interactive experience area, where citizens participated in pastry DIY experience while tasting food, and learned about the production process and cultural stories of canal food; In addition, the award ceremony of the “Canal Time Machine Good Luck Global Delivery” Postcard Design Competition for the fifth anniversary of the successful application of the canal was also held at the opening ceremony, and the much-watched “Sonic Post Office” was also officially launched.
Gao Xiaohui, director of the Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Gardens and Cultural Relics (Canal Comprehensive Protection Committee), said that the Hangzhou section is to the Grand Canal what Badaling is to the Great Wall. It is necessary to protect, inherit and make good use of the Hangzhou Canal culture, strive to build the core display area of China’s Grand Canal culture, and continuously increase support for the inheritance and development of China’s time-honored brands, so as to be inclusive, ancient for modern use, and jointly promote China’s Grand Canal culture to show its permanent charm and the style of the times.
It is understood that on June 21, the 5th anniversary celebration party of the successful application of the Grand Canal of China will also be held, and the closing ceremony of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal International Poetry Conference will also be presented at the party, when a wonderful celebration party for the 5th anniversary of the successful application of the canal will be created through classic poetry recitation, dance performances and other activities.