The Grand Canal will be designated a "Key State-level Cultural Relic" on China's first "World Heritage Day," set for June 10th of this year.

Zhang Wenbin, ex-president of the Cultural Relic Bureau, said such a measure will help to protect the Grand Canal as well as the cultural relics that use this route, as state-level cultural relics are protected by law. It will lay a solid foundation for the Grand Canal's application to be deemed World Heritage.

Although the Grand Canal is one of the two greatest man-made wonders that remain from ancient China--the other being the Great Wall--it is often neglected as a cultural relic, with the activities for its protection proving far from adequate. Since 2004, the Cultural Relic Bureau has organized several study tours along the Canal, collecting much of the useful information that allowed for the Grand Canal to be listed as a state-level cultural relic.

(CRI.com May 22, 2006)