Local governments have also carried out a number of provincial-level and city-level Grand Canal heritage conservation programs. These and other major heritage site conservation schemes have formed a comprehensive and instructive protection system that has been incorporated into local economic and social development plans as well as urban and rural planning.
The Grand Canal application for World Heritage augurs an immense conservation project that will construct eco-cities and beautiful villages, hence promoting rural tourism and bringing inestimable benefits to local residents. Since making the application, Shandong governments at all levels have invested around RMB one billion in the project, including RMB 500 million from national support, and RMB 100 million from a special provincial finance fund. These measures have ensured successful completion of the work entailed in the application. In addition to large-scale maintenance work on the Grand Canal, local governments have also undertaken beautification of the surrounding environment and resettlement of villagers.
Greenery now abounds along the canal’s zigzagging Dezhou section. Composed of the Wei Canal and South Canal, the entire section is 141 kilometers long and features a number of spots of cultural interest. They include the Tomb of King Sulu, the Dezhou Warehouse and Wharf, the Song Dynasty kiln site, and the Daguanying Mosque. The original canal landscape, the ancient but still operational warehouse, and the distinctive Tomb of King Sulu as well as the nearby ancient villages originally built to guard the tomb are the Dezhou section’s three precious remnants from earlier times. They embody the canal’s original look and economic and cultural functions. Since making the application the city has enhanced heritage conservation and environmental management and carried out protective development of the original landscape. Development has enabled people who formerly lived in shacks along the canal to move into new storied houses. An estimated five million people have benefited from the canal’s conservation since its application for World Heritage.
Not the Ultimate Objective
The successful application for the Grand Canal’s listing as World Heritage has drawn extensive attention to the otherwise lesser known cities along the canal. Many have started sketching plans for further conservation and management. Certain places are also keen to make the canal a focus of local tourism and shipping development. This entails even harder work to maintain the ancient style and cultural features of the Grand Canal, and to protect it from overexploitation and destructive construction. Balancing conservation and development is no easy matter.
Resolution of the conflict between conservation and development during the course of the World Heritage application has been achieved through appropriate methods to preserve cultural heritage that respect history and nature.
Wang Chenguang, professor of the Tourism Department at Shandong University, regards heritage preservation as incompatible with tourism development. World heritage, however, has brought a new perspective to local tourism development, from that solely focusing on natural resources to one embracing both nature and culture.
“Grand Canal tourism should combine with current culture in modifying and revitalizing existing traditions,” Chen Guozhong, head of the Tourism Planning and Design Institute of Shandong province and project leader of the Grand Canal general tourism plan, said. The Grand Canal is a living heritage; it is therefore crucial that tourism development restores the region’s traditional dwellings, means of production, and lifestyle.
Xie Zhixiu, head of the Shandong Provincial Bureau of Cultural Heritage, regards the World Heritage application as a process and means rather than ultimate goal. The Grand Canal spans west Shandong from north to south. One of the major cultural heritage sites in the southwest Shandong economic zone, it is hence also a main tourism resource. The aims of Grand Canal conservation and its application for World Heritage include improving rural tourism and the image of Shandong province, promoting the Grand Canal Shandong section as a new economic growth point, and facilitating sustainable and harmonious economic, social and cultural development.
In making sustainable use of the Grand Canal while inheriting and passing on its traditions, Shandong province has launched a project showcasing its history and culture. It has also embarked on major preservation projects aimed at building up the province’s economy, culture and the Southwest Shandong Economic Rising Belt. Historic sites, museums, the Grand Trek, and display platforms have effectively displayed and heightened the canal’s historical, scientific and cultural value. The conservation project has created cultural highlights such as the archaeological site of the water-division hub in Nanwang Town in Wenshang County, Tai’erzhuang Ancient Town, and the Grand Canal’s south section in Dezhou. The ultimate aim of the plan is to string together the pearls of cultural heritage along the Grand Canal, so forming a historical and cultural landscape belt spanning southwest Shandong from north to south.
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