Cycling photos.
Route map.
A group of college students from different schools came to Tongzhou Canal Park with the same goal. Without high-profile publicity or massive funding, they used their long tire tracks to draw a map of the canal’s cultural heritage.
While marveling at these young people, we should also reflect: why do our cultural heritage sites repeatedly fall into dilemmas between development and protection? Have we ever stood by as nearby historical relics disappeared? What more can we do? The students’ actions may be the best answer.
— The Editor
On the afternoon of September 11, the surface of Beijing’s Tongzhou Grand Canal Forest Park shimmered under sunlight, reflecting the willows lining the lake. The crisp ringing of bicycle bells echoed as a group of young cyclists approached from the distance, stopping at a signpost. Some took notes in their notebooks, others picked up their cameras to snap photos, then continued on their way...
This eight-person exploration team consisted of undergraduates and graduate students from Xiamen University, the Communication University of China, and Shandong University. They cycled 17 kilometers to conduct on-site research at the Tongzhou Grand Canal Forest Park.
Practice
They meticulously documented the conditions along the route, preliminarily identifying the locations of 40 cultural heritage sites
The Tongzhou section ride was their third exploration along the Grand River Trails. In 2010, Qi Xin, an expert in the study of the Grand Canal’s cultural heritage, organized students from Capital Normal University to cycle along the Ningbo and Hangzhou sections of the Grand River Trails. He also created a Baidu Encyclopedia page, blog, and Renren public page about the Grand River Trails to disseminate related knowledge, earning support from many media outlets and experts.
Under the guidance of Qi Xin and Liu~??, known as the “first person to cycle the Grand Canal,” the exploration team examined the road conditions, environmental settings, and cultural heritage sites along the canal, making detailed records.
Tan Cheng, a senior from the School of Journalism and Communication at Xiamen University, was one of the main organizers of the event. A month earlier, he and other team members scouted the route five times, averaging 20 kilometers per cycling trip and around 9 kilometers per walking trip.
Through their investigation, the team members preliminarily located 40 cultural heritage sites along the Beijing section of the Grand Canal, including the Tongji Bridge and Ran Deng Pagoda, gaining a more direct understanding of the canal culture.
“It’s a bit like treasure hunting. Whenever you discover a heritage site while cycling, it gives you a strong sense of achievement,” Tan Cheng said. Protecting cultural heritage is like racing against a bulldozer.
“When college students use cycling to explore the Grand Canal, it can inspire more people of similar age to join in protecting cultural heritage. It’s a great approach,” said Song, the director of Tongzhou Grand Canal Forest Park.
Influenced by this practical activity, the volunteers plan to closely integrate what they’ve learned with cultural heritage protection. Gao Yanqiu from the Communication University of China wants to continue such activities and film them as a documentary for her graduation project. Jiang Yuan, also from the Communication University of China, said that as journalism students, they have a responsibility to spread knowledge and culture about the heritage trails, even if it’s just by posting a short message on Weibo.
Leading
Inspiring more participation through small efforts, transforming heritage protection from “bounded” to “boundless”
The “Heritage Trail” of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, also known as the “Grand River Trails,” runs alongside the canal. It starts from Baifu Spring in Beijing, passes west through Luoyang in Henan (the Sui-Tang Tongji Canal), east through Nanyang in Shandong (formerly the Huitong Canal), and reaches Ningbo in the south. Stretching over 2,000 kilometers from north to south, it is the longest cultural heritage trail in the world.
The Tongzhou section cycled this time was one of the first areas labeled as part of the Heritage Trail, centered around the “Grand Canal Heritage Trail Road Stele” inscribed by renowned cultural relic preservation expert Luo Zhewen. This cycling event also marked the official launch of the “Luo Zhewen Trail” project.
To ensure the accuracy of the exploration route and enhance the activity’s impact, the volunteers invited several public figures involved in Grand Canal protection to participate. Mrs. Yang Jinghua, wife of Luo Zhewen, also came to cheer on the students. “I’m very happy—all the experts we invited came,” said team member Zhang Hailai.
Since Tan Cheng and his classmates attend school in Xiamen, far from the “Grand Canal Heritage Trail,” they initially only spread knowledge about cultural heritage protection through Weibo posts. After a month, their followers grew from zero to 900, boosting their confidence and prompting them to plan a route along the heritage trail. In May of this year, they launched an offline event titled “Experiencing Cultural Heritage and Voluntouring the Ancient Eight Markets of Xiamen.” The day after the announcement, over 20 people signed up. Despite the rainy weather on the day of the event, everyone completed the entire “Eight Markets Heritage Trail.”
In July, several members of the Xiamen University group came to Beijing for internships and had the chance to join the Grand Canal Heritage Trail cycling event. Wu Yiyi, who participated in both the Xiamen and Beijing events, said: “I hope our small efforts can inspire more people to join us, expanding heritage protection beyond the Grand River Trails, turning it from ‘bounded’ into ‘boundless.’”
Moving Forward
Continuing to plan routes and map the area to spread the history and culture of the Grand Canal further
“Many people visiting a city only see tourist maps, where the cultural heritage sites are not marked. Therefore, creating a heritage map is very meaningful and crucial for both contemporary and future generations to understand the canal,” said Zhou Liang, an expert on the Tongzhou section of the Grand Canal’s cultural heritage.
Nowadays, public enthusiasm for participating in cultural heritage protection is growing, and it’s not uncommon to see college students volunteering for such efforts. However, these spontaneous groups often lack formal organization and have limited scale. How far can such activities go? Wang Wenchao, founder of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal Friendship Association, noted that many students’ participation remains superficial, treating a visit to the Grand Canal as just a leisure trip.
Currently, the influence of small teams is indeed quite limited, and attracting more participants remains somewhat challenging. Regarding this, Liu Dake, an expert on imperial city history, believes, “We shouldn’t worry too much about the results. Even if one person looks up some information because of what we’ve done, and our work gets discovered, that’s enough.”
“Spreading awareness is inherently a process that starts with a few and then reaches many. We can’t stop just because there are only a few of us, or else it will always remain the work of a minority,” Jiang Yuan said with confidence about the future.
Although the cycling trip has ended, they still have much to do: planning routes, drawing maps, and publishing them on major cycling websites and social media platforms. The volunteers will continue to discuss issues such as “how to organize a cultural heritage route exploration” and “how to attract more university students to participate.” On the 21st, they will also conduct a route survey of the Baifu Spring section of the canal.
How can public participation be expanded? Zhou Liang suggests using the canal as a link to explore the cultural heritage along both banks and organizing fun, educational activities to attract more people. Liu Dak e also proposes combining the current “photography craze” with cultural heritage preservation, so that photography and the promotion of canal culture can go hand in hand.
“Use the history and culture of the Grand Canal to draw more attention to this cause,” Wang Wenchao believes. That, he says, is the most essential part—and currently the missing piece.