During the journey of "A Thousand Mile Journey Along the Grand Canal" Beijing Hangzhou Dialogue media tour, as a reporter and a member of this international team, I felt very excited. We started from the Canal Olympic Sports Park in Tongzhou, Beijing Province, and passed through Zaozhuang, Shandong Province to feel the charm of the ancient city of Tai'erzhuang, which is well known as "the first village in the world". After that, we visited the "origin point" of the Grand Canal in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, and finally, enjoyed a three-day visit to Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

In addition to the grand scene of the opening ceremony, I was deeply impressed with the exhibition themed on "The Age-old Grand Canal Taking Us To Common Prosperity". The intangible cultural heritages have widely broadened my horizon. Hand-painted and paper-cutting scrolls combined with traditional Chinese elements vividly showcase the overall look of the Grand Canal. 

"Charming north canal traditional" Chinese Paper-Cutting scroll (Photo/ Jin Weiduo)

When I was visiting the Zhejiang Theme Week, I came across the scene of the meeting of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games mascot "Bingdundun" and the mascot of the Hangzhou Asian Games "Chenchen" at the "first bridge of the ancient canal" - Gongchen Bridge. We have reason to believe that Beijing and Zhejiang will carry forward the spirit of sports and pass on the ancient canal culture to the world via a wide range of cultural exchanges next year.

"Bingdundun" with "Chenchen" (Photo/Zhejiang News)

At the Hangzhou Grand Theatre beside the Qiantang River, six "plum blossom Award" winners jointly performed the Beijing Opera Symphony suite "Beijing Grand Canal", which is to integrate traditional Beijing Opera with the Western symphony. Under the co-presentation of stage beauty, lighting, clothing, multimedia and other stage effects, melodious songs and beautiful light and shadow are intertwined on the Grand Canal.

Through the ages, poems about the Grand Canal have emerged endlessly. In the Grand Canal Music Square, the Grand Canal poetry festival has been successfully concluded with the interaction between words and music. The most amazing scene was 20 poets and musicians with audiences from different countries performing the impromptu. Their voices crossed space and time and pushed the festival to the final climax.

The annual grand canal temple fair was indispensable. Games such as throwing sandbags, Skipping rubber bands and skipping rope would take you back to your childhood. Special foods from all over the countries constantly tempted your appetite. Chinese style performances such as dragon and lion dance, face changing and Han costume exhibition carried forward traditional culture. There was also the Canal Cruise dating line, which allowed you to enjoy the beautiful scenery and look forward to a beautiful dating.

The Grand Canal Temple Fair (Photo/Zhejiang News)

Although this year's activities have come to an end, our pace of pursuing the Grand Canal culture has never stopped. Our mission is to protect, inherit, and utilize the Grand Canal Cultural Belt to the fullest. We look forward to the Grand Canal tour next year.

Reporter: Jin Weiduo

Editor: Ye Ke