On Monday, the Millennial Integration, Decadal Transformation — 2024 Grand Canal Cultural Reading Tour Exhibition, organized by the Capital Library of China in collaboration with seven libraries under the guidance of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, launched in the Beijing Library.

"The exhibition functions as a concentrated showcase and sharing platform for the culmination of the reading endeavors that traversed eight provinces and municipalities, namely Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Shandong, Hebei, Tianjin, and Beijing, throughout the year of 2024.

"Promoting the revitalization and utilization of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt with high quality and innovation is not only crucial for the magnificent transformation of the canal but also an essential boost to the cultural renaissance of the whole nation," said Chang Lin, a deputy inspector from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism attended in his speech, echoed by representatives from the eight provincial libraries and five municipal libraries along the canal that participated in this year's event.

Performers from the Appreciating Ancient Tunes in the Present troupe, dressed in Hanfu (traditional Han Chinese clothing), sang and recited ancient poems with distinctive local flavors from eight regions in the south, bringing back to life the natural grandeur, cultural brilliance, and bustling townscape of the Grand Canal. The grand year-end exhibition of the 2024 Grand Canal Cultural Reading Tour thus kicked off with a poetic and picturesque recitation.

Renowned cultural scholars, including Professor Meng Man from the School of History and Culture at the Minzu University of China, Distinguished Professor Zhang Weidong from the Department of Irrigation and Drainage at China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research and Member of the Special Committee on Water Conservancy History and Heritage of Chinese Hydraulic Engineering Society, and Professor Ni Yuping who is also deputy Dean of the School of Humanities at Tsinghua University, were invited to deliver fascinating keynote speeches about the history of the Grand Canal. Based on historical records and in harmony with the cultural context of the canal, these scholars interpreted the close fate of ancient historical and cultural celebrities with the Grand Canal, unveiled the wisdom-highlights embodied in this golden waterway, and elaborated on the extraordinary significance of preserving and inheriting canal culture for readers.

During the performance, dances from Luoyang, such as Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk, vividly retold the stories of the canal through digital technology, costume restoration, and situational reenactment, collectively staging a splendid cultural spectacle that transported readers across time and space to experience the beauty of the Grand Canal.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the successful inscription of the Chinese Grand Canal on the World Heritage List, for which the participating libraries jointly established the Grand Canal Libraries Alliance to promote the continuous inheritance of canal cultural heritage through intercity connectivity. The alliance's inaugural event, the Grand Canal Cultural Reading Tour, embarked from Hangzhou, Zhejiang, on June 29, 2024, and traveled north along the Grand Canal through one city another until it arrived in the capital, Beijing on Sept 7.

The 2024 Grand Canal Cultural Reading Tour is dedicated to awakening canal cultural memories through literature and empowering the inheritance of canal cultural heritage through reading. One can savor the poetic charm of a thousand years along the banks of the Grand Canal and feel the nation's long history and splendid civilization.