The 317-meter-long Baodai Bridge near the Grand Canal in the city of Suzhou is one of the 10 most famous ancient bridges in China. CHINA DAILY
Annual event provides a platform for cities to showcase tourism development, promote business collaborations and share lifestyles
The Fourth Grand Canal Culture and Tourism Expo, which kicked off on Thursday and will last through Sept 25, is showcasing the charm of cities along the canal that links Beijing and Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, and promoting cultural exchanges through a slew of exhibitions and activities.
Since 2019, the expo has provided a platform for the development of culture and tourism and related products as well as the sharing of the lifestyles of people in canal cities.
The previous expos were held in the cities of Yangzhou, Wuxi and Suzhou in Jiangsu province, which attracted more than 376,000 visitors and 450 million online viewers in total.
Covering 43,000 square meters, this year's expo, held in Suzhou, has six exhibition zones. One of them is a tourism boutique exhibition showcasing culture and tourism products with local characteristics of cities along the Grand Canal and Shanghai. A 5G Grand Canal immersive experience pavilion is set up inside, allowing visitors to experience the canal's beautiful scenery.
An international exhibition centered on the Silk Road and the Grand Canal is part of the expo. The expo's organizers have invited institutions in China and companies from countries engaged in the Belt and Road Initiative to participate in the exhibition. And the event also includes the China-Europe Oil Painting Art Exchange Exhibition.
The exhibition aims to promote exchanges and cooperation between Jiangsu and countries relating to the BRI in cultural tourism. It also aims to enhance the international influence of the province's culture and tourism industry.
The tourism product exhibition zone with Grand Canal characteristics presents a number of new business models and products in the context of regular pandemic prevention and control. The zone has four areas: the cultural and tourism product experience area displaying the immersive interactive activities such as virtual reality live action role-playing games and augmented reality soccer; the new tourism equipment experience area displaying products like recreational vehicle camping and outdoor supplies; the promotion area of tourism products and routes for parent-child travels and study tours; and the new tourism commodities sales area for China's fashion innovation and ancient style clothing.
The Grand Canal intangible cultural heritage exhibition zone displays the canal-side cities' creative achievements in integrating intangible cultural heritage with tourism and science and technologies.
A digital industry exhibition zone showcases excellent digital tourism achievements for companies from the canal cities in Jiangsu and domestic leading digital companies.
The Grand Canal cuisine culture exhibition showcases cooking skills and intelligent catering products, which reflects the inheritance and development of the traditional food along the canal. Cuisine cultural displays; food-making performance; and food tasting are among the zone's highlights.
Two thematic forums will also be held at the expo. The Grand Canal Digital Cultural Tourism Industry Development Forum is one of them, featuring experts, entrepreneurs and investors sharing insights into the tourism industry's development trend in the era of the thriving digital economy.
Participating enterprises, financial institutions and other entities are expected to launch major projects combining cultural tourism and digital technology, and promote the development of the tourism industry along the canal.
The other forum, the Grand Canal City Cultural Tourism Consumption Forum, will focus on the new scenes of quality tourism, new trends of culture and tourism consumption and new layout of smart cultural tourism to explore ways to stimulate and unleash the potential of the culture and tourism consumption. Meanwhile, the 2021-22 Jiangsu Cultural and Tourism Consumption Hot List and Jiangsu Cultural and Tourism Consumption White Paper 2021-22 are to be released at the forum.
