Present situation and protection measures of Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal

Editor's Note: The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has a glorious history and has created rich material and spiritual wealth for the Chinese nation. But today, the situation facing the Grand Canal is worrying: the natural environment is seriously polluted, the loss of cultural relics is amazing, and the social and economic functions are sharply reduced. In order to protect the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and support its application for world cultural heritage, University of Science and Technology Beijing set up a "Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal Student Investigation Group" to conduct research in six provinces and cities along the canal and 18 cities, popularize the knowledge of the canal among the public and jointly promote the application for world cultural heritage.

In June this year 165438+ 10, the investigation report of Beijing University of Science and Technology "Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal" won the first prize in the 10th "Challenge Cup" national extracurricular academic and scientific works competition for college students. This newspaper now publishes some investigation reports on "Canal History and Culture" for readers.

research method

Archaeological experts from National Cultural Heritage Administration and University of Science and Technology Beijing were invited to train the members of the research team.

■ The investigation team conducted on-the-spot investigation on the water source, water quality, water conservancy facilities and surrounding environment of the canal by hiking and cycling, and analyzed the causes of the problems.

■ Through communication with people along the canal, the investigation team learned about the changes and lost folk culture of the canal.

■ The investigation team took the initiative to contact the city governments and relevant institutions along the canal and organized a series of symposiums.

During the whole investigation, the investigation team * * * distributed more than 5700 copies of canal knowledge propaganda materials1and 258 copies of questionnaires1,and recovered 2487 valid questionnaires, and launched a signature campaign of "Protecting the Canal and Supporting the Application for World Heritage", which radiated nearly one million people. The research team also interviewed more than 70 experts, scholars and government officials, and held discussions with 26 government departments including Tianjin Water Conservancy Bureau, Zhangweinan Canal Administration Bureau and Cangzhou Cultural Relics Bureau.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was dug in the late Spring and Autumn Period, formed in the Sui Dynasty and developed in the Tang and Song Dynasties. A complete canal system was formed in Yuan Dynasty. After years of reconstruction and diversion, a "golden waterway" with a total length of 1794 km was finally formed, with a history of nearly 2500 years.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, as a golden channel for ancient communication between the North and the South, has always been the political, economic and military lifeline of dynasties, and has played an extremely important role in promoting economic prosperity, integrating the cultures of the North and the South, and inheriting the national spirit. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has a vast basin and cultural relics are scattered all over the place.

What was the glory of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal? What is it like now? Why is it so difficult to apply for the World Heritage? With the above problems, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal Student Research Group of University of Science and Technology Beijing set up a research team of 13, with 44 people, and went to six provinces and cities along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and 18 cities to conduct a comprehensive investigation on the Grand Canal for half a year. At the same time, it launched a signature activity of "Protecting the Canal and Supporting the Application for World Heritage" along the Yangtze River.

The situation between the north and the south of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is quite different, and the existing problems are also different. At present, they mainly focus on the following aspects:

■ The natural environment has been seriously damaged.

Mainly manifested in the reduction of water sources and insufficient water; Serious pollution and poor water quality; The management of water conservancy facilities is out of order, the water conservancy projects are seriously aging, and they have been in disrepair for many years, which can no longer play their due role. Due to the different conditions in the north and south reaches of the canal, the same facilities also play different roles.

The surrounding environment of the canal is not good, and the provinces and cities along the canal management are divided, which has caused great difficulties for the overall protection and management of the canal. Coupled with the low environmental awareness of some coastal residents, the canal regulation is more difficult. The development of modern transportation has greatly reduced the shipping value of the canal.

Socio-economic function degradation

1. The shipping function is insufficient.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal once had developed shipping, which is an important channel for the transportation of materials between the north and the south, and also an important waterway in the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone. Even now, there are about 654.38 million ships sailing on the canal all the year round, and the annual traffic volume is three times that of beijing-shanghai railway. However, judging from the water level of the Grand Canal and the overall situation of water conservancy facilities, it is impossible for the entire Grand Canal to be navigable, and nearly half of the river sections have stopped shipping. The annual navigation mileage of the Grand Canal is only over 800 kilometers, and the seasonal navigation mileage is only over 1000 kilometers.

2. It is difficult to meet the needs of agricultural irrigation and domestic water on both sides of the strait.

In the survey, only 30.25% coastal residents think that canal water can still be used for daily cleaning such as cooking, cooking, bathing and washing clothes, and most residents have never used the concept of canal water.

■ The loss of cultural heritage is amazing.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has nurtured generations, nurtured one famous ancient town after another, and left one cultural relic after another.

Residents around the country have different understandings of the cultural relics and customs along the canal, so it is necessary to strengthen publicity and education on the canal culture.

Damage to cultural relics and historical sites

There are 654 registered cultural relics protection units along the canal, including 109 national key cultural relics protection units and 9 national historical and cultural cities. Take Tongzhou in Beijing as an example. There are more than 100 canal-related buildings and more than 2,000 movable cultural relics along the 36-kilometer-long canal, such as burning Buddha Pagoda and Shiba Inuya Wharf. In addition, the cultural relics protection plan for some sections of the canal is also being formulated, and some sections of the canal have also undergone environmental improvement and cultural relics rescue and repair. For example, the Xiaohe River in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province directly compiled the protection plan of historical blocks, and Hangzhou built the Canal Museum. In Hanshan Temple in Suzhou, Jiangsu, the scenic spots are built along the river, and the protection work is also perfect. The tour guide also vigorously publicizes and introduces the local history and culture during the tourists' visit. Undoubtedly, while tourism and other industries promote economic development, we can better appeal to everyone to protect cultural heritage and inherit historical and cultural spirit, but these must be based on unified, perfect and sound protection measures.

The investigation found that ancient houses, ancient streets, Gu Xiang, dikes, embankments and inscriptions in some places. There is almost no residue along the canal, and it has not been excavated or taken corresponding protective measures. Instead, they built large-scale buildings to make fake historical sites and sell fake antiques, artificially destroying the original appearance of the canal. For example, the demolition of ancient houses in Tianjin, the reconstruction of Zhengtai teahouse residential area in Botou section, and the buildings in Suzhou Xishan are dying out at a rate of about 20% every year because they are not effectively protected.

The disappearance of folk crafts

Folk arts and crafts are arts and crafts created by local artists according to their own living habits and aesthetic perspectives, and are the treasures of local folk culture. Canal water gave birth to ingenious canal people, who created a batch of folk handicrafts with local characteristics.

Along the canal, there are folk art forms such as peasant paintings, paper-cuts, clay figurines, puppet shows, dough figurines, kites, lanterns, toys, sugar figurines, wood carvings, stone carvings, embroidery, woodblock New Year pictures, straw weaving, wickerwork and embroidery tapestries. Among them, more than 30 folk art forms circulating in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province are well preserved. Dongchangfu District has many folk arts and crafts works, the most representative of which are Dongchang New Year pictures and water hyacinth. Liaocheng (known as Dongchangfu in ancient times) and Yangjiabu in Weifang are also known as the two major folk painting cities in Shandong.

But folk crafts are disappearing. In the first town of Xushuguan, Suzhou, a famous town in Jiangsu, where "every family has Su embroidery, everyone knows Su embroidery, and every household knows Su embroidery", the original popular characteristic straw weaving technology disappeared in the prosperity and development of Su embroidery. The development of handicraft industry has undoubtedly brought about the activity of commerce and the rise of cities, but under the market competition, the protection of intangible cultural heritage is more difficult and neglected. With the large-scale transformation of the city, the historical context along the canal has also become blurred. The old artist is old, and there is no successor to his skill. Protection is a race against time, and rescue work is imminent.

The decline of folk art

The Grand Canal has absorbed and integrated the folk customs, food, clothing, religious beliefs and official and civilian etiquette in the north and south of China, forming a unique canal style and folk culture. One of its most remarkable characteristics is market culture, that is, people hold various festivals and expect incense to be strong, the weather is good and everything goes well. For example, during the Spring Festival every year, there are dragon lanterns, dry boats, stilts and lion dances, and the streets are full of excitement. In addition, 100 variety of Quyi also witnessed the cultural life of the canal people. Taking Tianjin as an example, there are nearly 20 kinds of Quyi, such as storytelling, cross talk, plum blossom drum, Laoting drum and Xihe drum.

However, with the decline of the function and the sharp decline of the value of the canal, the folk art bred by the canal can not escape the fate of decline. Some villages along the canal are in a state of natural development, and many places don't even have basic entertainment places. In most areas, especially economically backward areas, "cultural deserts" and "cultural dead corners" have appeared to varying degrees.

Among them, the most representative is Canal Song, which has been included in China Folk Songs Collection. People who live along the North Canal all the year round will still hum the canal trumpets handed down from generation to generation, but due to the lack of water or even the interruption of the canal, they can no longer hear the real canal trumpets sung by boatmen when pulling boats on the banks of the river. With the decline of grain transportation, this folk art formed in grain transportation has gradually become a "swan song". It is gratifying that the relevant departments have begun to attach importance to the inheritance of canal culture, and the collection and arrangement of canal songs in Tongzhou and Yangzhou are currently underway.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is an important heritage of national culture and the common wealth of all mankind. However, many problems in the protection of the historical and cultural heritage of the Grand Canal have attracted our attention. In our opinion, there are two main reasons besides the lack of unified planning and management of the Grand Canal and the relatively weak awareness of some people on the protection of cultural heritage: First, the research on the canal culture is still superficial, and the research on culture, history and other aspects, especially the research on intangible culture, is relatively weak; Second, some people's understanding of wealth in today's society is limited to immediate interests, ignoring the inheritance and protection of ancient culture, resulting in the gradual disappearance of cultural heritage due to lack of economic benefits.

■ Protection countermeasures and suggestions for declared heritage.

Although the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is facing many problems, governments at all levels along the canal are also strengthening the protection and management of the canal, and have successively issued relevant protection policies and programs, and have continuously increased investment in manpower, material resources and financial resources, and achieved certain results. With the continuous promotion of heritage application and protection, the Grand Canal has attracted more and more attention from all walks of life.

We suggest establishing a unified management and coordination mechanism and a multi-party working group for the protection and application of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Participants should include cultural relics protection institutions, local governments along the canal, Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Communications and its corresponding grass-roots departments, canal-related staff, experts and scholars. In order to uniformly manage and coordinate the protection, management, development and heritage application of the Grand Canal in coastal areas.

■ There are too many negative effects in the development of tourism resources.

The investigation shows that the tourism resources of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal have not been fully developed, and many negative effects have been produced in the limited development.

(1) tourism resources are underdeveloped.

There are temples, temples, ancient streets and other cultural relics along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, as well as folk arts and crafts such as plays, colored lights and pottery sculptures, which are extremely rich in tourism resources. In the survey, someone said, "We have stone slabs in the Tang Dynasty, tiles in the Song Dynasty, doorsills in the Ming Dynasty, windows in the Qing Dynasty, and modern facilities in them." However, the tourism resources of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal have not been fully developed and the economic output value is low.

(2) Unreasonable development destroys tourism resources.

Coastal cities lack reasonable planning and protection in the development of canal tourism, and the tourism development of many river sections blindly brings forth the old and brings forth the new, and there is no reasonable division of buffer zones and protected areas. In order to create popular tourist attractions, developers have made great efforts to build the Canal Cultural Square and Canal Park. The original appearance of the Grand Canal and the cultural heritage along the coast have been damaged to varying degrees because of too many buildings and random transformation of the river course. The ancient culture of the Canal has not been reasonably combined with the modern urban atmosphere, which is not conducive to the construction of a harmonious society.

Some interviewees' understanding and support for the application for the canal heritage.

Beijing to Tianjin section:

39.42% know that Hangzhou Grand Canal is now applying for World Cultural Heritage; When asked about the necessity of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to declare the world cultural heritage, 24.24% thought it was unnecessary, 42.42% thought it was necessary and 33.33% thought it was unclear.

92.65% supported the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to declare the world cultural heritage, 2.2 1% did not support it, and 5. 15% was uncertain. After the interviewees understood the importance of protecting the Grand Canal, a large number of people expressed their support for the declaration of world cultural heritage.

Xuzhou to Suqian section:

Nearly 60% people don't know that the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is applying for world cultural heritage. Of course, almost everyone thinks that it is necessary for the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to declare the world cultural heritage and give it support.

Wujiang to Hangzhou section:

54.93% know that the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is now applying for world cultural heritage; When asked about the necessity of applying for World Cultural Heritage on the Grand Canal,1.465,438+0% people think it is unnecessary, 94.37% people think it is necessary and 4.23% people think it is unclear. 98.59% supported the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to declare the World Cultural Heritage,1.465,438+0% did not, and the uncertainty was zero.

Understanding of canal history and culture by some interviewees.

Beijing to Tianjin section:

12.78% have no knowledge of the history of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, 57.89% have a little knowledge and 25.56% have a basic understanding. 4 1.67% don't know the local cultural relics related to the canal, and 58.33% know something. About the understanding of local folk art, dance, drama, literature, folk art, folk customs, 53.85% don't know, and 46. 15% know something.

Tianjin to Cangzhou section:

50.2% of the respondents chose "a little understanding" of the history of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, 18.7% chose "basic understanding", and 15.6% knew it very well and didn't know it at all. Most of the interviewees can tell the legendary story about the canal, but few people know the specific history of the canal, and even quite a few people don't know that the ditch in front of their house is the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

Xuzhou to Suqian section:

Most people know something about the history of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, but little about the canal-related cultural relics such as Qinhuai River and Guazhou Gudu. About 30% people know about art and folk customs, including Anhui Liuqin Opera, Anhui Huangmei Opera, Yue Opera, Henan Opera and Ancient Painting Opera.

The days of walking in the canal

Zhang, a student at University of Science and Technology Beijing

One month before the coming summer vacation, I have been thinking hard about what to do this internship, to do some meaningful research results, to cherish this opportunity, and to raise my ability and level to a new level.

One day, I saw a poster for the recruitment of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal Summer Social Practice Team. My eyes brightened and my mind broadened. So I went to the practice department for consultation and confirmed that this project has unusual significance. I began to "collect" talents around me to join my team. According to the recruitment requirements, you need to contact local students, digital cameras, laptops, DV, etc. , as well as journalists, finance, security, investigation, preaching and other talents. I transferred my communication talent pool: Shandong Association, friends who started business together, and part-time friends. After some tossing, an excellent team from different classes in several colleges was born! I am the head of this team.

Prepare, discuss, interview, and then wait until the results are passed. After consultation, the practice department put us in charge of the first section of Liaocheng, Shandong Province. The players are very excited, and we are full of confidence in this exercise.

Due to the great influence of weather and other factors, almost all our daily trips have to be temporarily adjusted and planned. The hot Liaocheng, mixed with the flavor of Jiangbei Shuicheng, is extremely sultry, often covered by fine water vapor, and sticky from morning till night. Because the walking interview consumes a lot of physical strength, the team members underestimate the actual work intensity, which leads to physical overdraft, and individual team members are slack and afraid of difficulties. Fortunately, every member of the team has strong self-control ability. Small disharmony does not affect the work progress of the team. Sometimes, a kind of competition is formed, so that the team can overcome many difficulties under such conditions.

In practice, it is very hard to walk to the grass-roots level for four days and do questionnaires. However, the players are not worried. They worked in pairs, conducted in-depth interviews and carefully recorded, shouldering a responsibility for the protection and application of the Grand Canal. Sometimes I feel touched when I see the scene of everyone working hard in groups. With the increase of questionnaires, the arrangement of folk stories, the completion of interview manuscripts and the accumulation of canal photos, everyone comes back with a smile every day. But as soon as I lay down, I heard the players snoring.

In addition to field trips, we also need to interview relevant units and government departments. The local government has given us great support. Wherever we go, the door will be open for us. At that time, a feeling of ease and pleasure came to mind.

We made nine spray boards to introduce our practical activities, activities and the canal situation, which were used to attract the masses and give lectures, combining the signature of the lectures with the questionnaire survey. In Linqing Citizen Park and Guangyue Building in the center of Liaocheng, we conducted successful publicity and signature activities.

The days of struggling with difficulties are very tiring, but very happy. If we do it again, each of us will gladly accept it.

(This article is selected from the essay "Canal, I want to tell you" by University of Science and Technology Beijing. The title was added by the editor. )