Four elderly cycling enthusiasts from Taiyuan, including Zhang Fuqing from Nanhuan Community and Li Bingzheng from Cuixin Yuan Community, embarked on a cycling tour along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to Hangzhou on September 18.
They started their journey from Gongchen Bridge, the southern terminus of the Grand Canal, and cycled northward through more than 20 cities and districts, including Hangzhou, Huzhou, and Jiaxing in Zhejiang Province; Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Huai'an, Suqian, and Xuzhou in Jiangsu Province; Zaozhuang, Dezhou, Linqing, Liaocheng, and Jining in Shandong Province; Xingtai, Hengshui, and Cangzhou in Hebei Province; Wuqing District in Tianjin; and Tongzhou District in Beijing. They crossed five major river systems—the Qiantang River, the Yangtze River, the Huai River, the Yellow River, and the Hai River—covering a distance of 1,780 kilometers, and finally arrived at the Jishuitan Canal Dock in Beijing.
The elderly riders said their main goal was to promote China’s Grand Canal culture, advocate for the protection of the green canal, and support its application for World Heritage status. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is a great engineering feat created by the ancient Chinese laboring people, a precious material and spiritual legacy left to future generations, and a living, flowing important human heritage. It is one of the longest, largest, and oldest canals in the world, ranked alongside the Great Wall as one of the two great ancient projects of China and the foremost canal in the world. The Beijing-Hangzhou Canal has played a significant role in the economic and cultural development and exchange between northern and southern China,