Handwritten newspaper for protecting the Grand Canal

China's Grand Canal is a world cultural heritage, a great water conservancy project created by China's ancient working people on the eastern plain of China, the longest canal in the world, and the earliest and largest canal dug in the world.

Cultural value

The culture of the Chinese nation is diverse, and the cultural diversity is due to the differences in natural conditions caused by different geographical environments in different regions, the differences in social conditions caused by different levels of economic development, the differences in cultural backgrounds brought about by different living customs, and the political isolation formed by the military feudal regime, all of which are enough to cause different characteristics of regional culture. With the rapid development of the Grand Canal, the social economy in the canal area has reached unprecedented prosperity, which not only provides a solid material foundation for the development of cultural undertakings in the canal area, but also promotes the great exchanges between the North and South (including East and West) cultures and Chinese and foreign cultures, making various regional cultures and foreign cultures contact, blend and merge with each other, forming a unique canal culture. Canal culture, with its extensive inclusiveness and unity, extensive diffusion and openness, strong cohesion and centripetal force, not only strengthens the cultural blending of Qilu, the birthplace of China's traditional ideology and culture, with the Central Plains and Jiangnan, but also integrates Beijing, headed by Chang 'an in Han and Tang Dynasties, Luoyang, Kaifeng in Song Dynasty, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, constantly narrowing the differences of regional cultures and presenting the same cultural characteristics. At the same time, it also makes the canal area a place where talents gather and the style of writing is prosperous. The water of the Grand Canal has nurtured many famous politicians, militarists, thinkers, scientists, inventors, writers and artists. They not only made great contributions to the development of canal culture, but also had a wide and far-reaching impact on the history of China and even the world.

Contemporary value

The Grand Canal is a realistic testimony of China's history of more than 2,000 years, and it is the richest cultural corridor, museum and encyclopedia that preserves China's splendid ancient culture. For this precious heritage left by our ancestors, not only future generations need to protect and make good use of it, but also modern people need to seriously explore, summarize, inherit and develop it, and make positive contributions to building a harmonious socialist society and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

The 24 cities along the canal are located in five regions with different water systems, and the protection status of the canal is different with different economic and management levels. The staff of the World Heritage Application Office speculated that the biggest difficulty in the application process may be the coordination between cities. "Can cities in different economic zones and cultural zones be synchronized?" "We want to co-ordinate all cities along the route and hope that every region and city can attach importance to and cooperate."

Yangzhou, "Moonlit Night on the Twenty-four Bridges", hangs on the shoulders of the Grand Canal. In 486 BC, Fu Cha, the king of Wu, shoveled the first earth here. Since the Sui Dynasty, the Grand Canal, which runs through the north-south water system, has gradually become the longest and oldest canal in the world. Yangzhou, located on the canal, has become one of the most prosperous cities along the coast.