Part 1: Colorful Life Alongside the Grand Canal
Beijing-Hangzhou Canal is a 2500-year-old waterway legacy of the Chinese people and a source of life that gave birth to the canal culture of China. As a “golden waterway” connecting the north and south of China, it cradled countless generations of Chinese people, while carrying the myriad aspects of mundane life and nurturing the nation’s character.
The narration takes the different vehicles on the canal as the clue. Starting from ancient wooden sailing boats, fishing boats, cargo ships, liners and passenger ships, the film introduces various layers of culture, civic life and tourism highlights in cities along the canal. The story’s details resonate with the main idea of “Water Charm of Jiangsu”, containing the grand views of theatrical arts, traditional craftsmanship, folk traditions and tourism resource along the Jiangsu section of the canal.
Part 2: Dance Drama "Millennium Canal"
The Grand Canal is the longest and oldest canal in the world. It runs across China’s main river basins from the south to the north, linking the Yellow River, the Huaihe River and the Yangtze River. With more than 2,000 years of development and evolution, the Grand Canal has played a significant role as the main transport artery between south and north China. On June 22th 2014, the Grand Canal was inscribed on the World Heritage List in the 38th annual session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee and became the 46th China’s World Heritage Site. In July 2017, China issued a plan to establish the Grand Canal as a national culture park covering the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the Sui-Tang Grand Canal and the Eastern Zhejiang Canal. By the end of April 2022, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal had water flowing through its entire 1,789-kilometre channel for the first time in about a century, marking a new chapter in its 2500 years of history. The full recovery of the canal shows that it will continue to play an essential role in water supply, transportation and shipping and become a veritable “golden waterway”.