"The Grand Canal of China is as great as
the Great Wall," said Wu Jianmin, spokesman for the annual session
of the CPPCC National Committee.??
?"The Grand Canal of China is as great as the Great Wall,"
said Wu Jianmin, spokesman for the annual session of the CPPCC
National Committee. Wu said this during an exclusive interview to
reporters from China News Service.
The Grand Canal, which was listed as one of the most important
national protected heritage sites last year, has attracted the
attention of more and more people.
"Currently many people know the Great Wall, but they have no
ideas of the Grand Canal. Some people pay little attention to
cultural relic protection, but the nation's historians know the
importance of cultural relics," Wu said. He also revealed that
French President Chirac also intended to visit the Grand Canal when
he visited Yangzhou in Jiangsu Province, which, he believed, could
also demonstrate the uniqueness of the canal.
The Grand Canal, also known as the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal,
is the longest artificial river in the world. Some people regard it
and the Great Wall as one of the two greatest ancient engineering
projects.
Wu said, "Since the Grand Canal was built in A.D. 605, it has
become a crucial transportation channel in 1,400 years."
Several members of the CPPCC National Committee also hope to
list the canal as a World Cultural Heritage site, and some of them
have inspected the regions along the canal. Wu told our reporters
that in some sections of the canal, pollution is serious, and some
section of the river are hardly navigable. He hoped these problems
solved as soon as possible.
(Chinanews March 7, 2007)
