China GCTOP Season launches in Pakistan

China Cultural Center in Pakistan and the Cultural Office of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Pakistan have rolled out a series of online activities to promote the tourism image of the Grand Canal to Pakistani as well as world audiences. The season will feature nearly 100 activities across the world, focusing on the natural scenery, cultural heritage, and societal progress of the ancient waterway system which has been listed as world heritage.

These activities include a series of photography exhibitions, video broadcasts, online interactive exhibitions, and tourism routes video series. These promotional activities also comprise promotional videos and photography exhibitions of different municipalities and provinces of China’s Grand Canal flow, such as Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Shandong, and Henan.

The Grand Canal is a vast waterway system in the eastern plains of China, running from Beijing in the north to Zhejiang province in the south. As a world cultural heritage, the Grand Canal of China is the earliest, largest, and longest man-made canal in the world.

On June 22nd, 2014, the 38th session of UNESCO World Heritage’s committee announced the Grand Canal as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, becoming the 46th World Heritage Site in China.

The official launch ceremony of China’s Grand Canal Tourism Overseas Promotion Season 2024 was held in Wuxi, China on 2nd April 2024. During the launch ceremony, the Network of International Culturalink Entities (NICE) and BMW China unveiled the Grand Canal Culture Protection and Education Project.

Moreover, the Department of Culture and Tourism, the Foreign Affairs Office of Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government, and the People’s Bank of China Jiangsu Branch released eight new measures aimed at revitalizing inbound tourism. These measures address concerns of international tourists, such as limited access to information on Jiangsu’s tourism, challenges with payment, bookings at popular sites and language barriers, and the need for travel routes that cater to emerging demands.

The event, marking its second edition since 2022, is a collaborative effort by the Network of International Culturalink Entities (NICE), the Department of Culture and Tourism of Jiangsu Province, and the Wuxi Municipal People’s Government.

The “China’s Grand Canal Tourism Overseas Promotion Season 2024” will take place online, and each day we will present you with an engaging program regarding China’s Grand Canal, such as the promotion of local culture and tourism projects, the showing of documentaries about intangible cultural assets, photo exhibitions, and more.

Viewers in Pakistan and all over the world can follow and enjoy all these interesting photography exhibitions, video series broadcasts, and other pertinent activities on the Grand Canal on the official Facebook page of the China Cultural Center in Pakistan.