"The blue waves of Taihu Lake are as bright as mirrors, the jade belts of the canals are like colorful brocade, the green mountains and beautiful waters are fertile soil, and a pearl counts the Wangting Pavilion..." On the evening of May 31, the Jiangsu Grand Theater was packed, written, directed and performed by Wangting people. The large-scale sitcom "Impression Wangting Pavilion" was performed here. With the artistic reproduction of beautiful living scenes in the ancient canal town, Wangting, this "Daoxiang Town" located in the farthest northwest of Suzhou, has left an unforgettable "nostalgia mark" in the hearts of the audience. In modern China, people have nostalgia born with water. In this ancient land, there are few cities like Suzhou that can include Taihu Lake and Canal, two water systems with strong Jiangnan poetry. The reputation of the Taihu Lake Basin as the land of fish and rice has been known to the world since ancient times, and the Tangtang Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was once a symbol of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Today, Suzhou's rise and prosperity in both cultural and economic fields are inseparable from these two water systems. Then, Guyi Wangting, the only town in Suzhou with the style of canals and Taihu Lake, will inevitably become a specimen of the integrated development of Suzhou's past and present. It is a specimen of Suzhou's ancient civilization and a microcosm of Suzhou's development.

Author/Ying Zhigang

Cultural confidence rises along the ancient canal

The first shovel of soil for the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was excavated at Wangting.

In 495 BC, in order to compete with Chu, King Fuchai of Wu ordered the excavation of a section of canal from Wangting, Suzhou to Benniu Town, Changzhou through Wuxi, in order to compete with Chu. It was more than 2500 years ago.

After thousands of years of accumulation, the Wangting section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal has left an extremely rich cultural heritage: water system relics such as Shadun Port, Guanjiqiao Port, Mudan Port, Renxiang Port, and Nanhe Port, ancient Changzhou Garden, Yuecheng, and Huangting Monument, Shenzhai, Yinghu Temple and other ancient sites, unearthed cultural relics from various periods such as the Songze Cultural Period and the Neolithic Era, as well as a large number of intangible cultural relics... These colorful contents are still rare to the people of Wangting.

In the new era, the Grand Canal no longer carries only water transportation and historical evidence, but also the confidence and motivation to promote high-quality development and advance civilization.

Starting from June 2017, Wangting Town has started the restoration of Yuting, Huangting Monument, Post Station, and Stone Pier Archway, and built Wangyun Pavilion and Cultural Exhibition Hall. It has integrated the style of Wangting Old Street and the inheritance of traditional Chinese medicine into it to help the inheritance and development of canal culture.

Located in the east of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, it covers an area of 200,000 square meters and has a landscape area of 198,000 square meters. The Canal Park, which took two years to build, has been officially opened.

The park is located in the central township of Wangting. It is divided into two parts: the canal section and the Yuting section. It is in a T-shape and is divided into agricultural experience area, leisure living area, ancient architectural landscape area, industrial experience area, transformation art area and Fuqian There are six major parts of the leisure waterfront area, which respectively display Wangting's historical culture, industrial culture, modern agricultural culture and citizen leisure culture.

As the core area of Canal Park, Wangting Historical and Cultural District has restored buildings such as Wangyun Pavilion, Millennium Wangting Pavilion, Wangting Posthouse, etc., fully exploring the historical and cultural heritage of Wangting and achieving the purposes of protection, utilization and inheritance. At the same time, the theme of "Cultural Living Room Looking Back at the Royal Pavilion" is "deeply exploring the cultural characteristics of Wangting. On the basis of catering to the ancient characteristics of the building itself, it makes full use of modern media technology and artistic means to present the" living "and" intelligent "cultural exhibition hall. We are committed to building it into a centralized display window for Wangting's history and culture, a center for Wangting's intangible cultural heritage cultural activity, and the first stop for Wangting's cultural tourism.

For the people of Wangting Town, when they go out, they are the Canal Park, and behind the park is the scenery of the Canal. The people are also full of happiness and gain in the improvement of their living environment.

Taihu Lake nourishes thousand-year-old rice farming civilization

Wangting not only has canals, but also has the vast North Taihu Lake

On April 7, 2018, along with the opening of the "Taihu Rice City" rapeseed season series activities, the total area was more than 15000 acres.

The North Taihu Lake (Wangting) Tourist Scenic Area was also officially released to the public.

Wangting's beautiful new countryside is scattered among thousands of acres of fertile farmland, forming a beautiful picture of poetic Jiangnan. Among them is located in Taihu Lake

Yinghu Village on the bank, relying on its livable ecological environment, strong local customs, and industrial development that accelerates transformation and upgrading, became a demonstration village for ecological civilization construction in Jiangsu Province and a demonstration village for "One Village, One Product, One Store" in Jiangsu Province in 2018.

In recent years, Wangting Town has designed and developed a series of high-quality routes and products while comprehensively integrating Taihu Lake and agricultural tourism resources. Through the upgrading and renovation of Yuting Road, Huting Road, Jinsha Beach Road, Shundi River and other areas, the surrounding landscape has been greatly improved, and the construction of Changzhouyuan Wetland Park and Daoxiang Park has been completed one after another. At the same time, we will take advantage of the opportunity of creating Nanhe Port's characteristic pastoral villages to continuously improve the infrastructure facilities in the scenic area, focus on the introduction of new business formats such as fine folk customs, attract more high-quality projects, and allow more new business formats to take root in the North Taihu Lake (Wangting) Tourist Scenic Area.

North Taihu Lake is connected by nostalgia, rooted in the local area and caring for the villagers. In the exploration of scenic area management, it brings a sense of gain to local farmers. The per capita net income of North Taihu Lake has steadily increased, and more and more entrepreneurs have returned to their hometowns, providing North Taihu Lake with rich and diverse fresh business formats and commercial vitality, and feeding back the development of the scenic spot.

Relying on a 10,000-acre ecological high-quality grain production base, it integrates efficient ecological agriculture, deep and refined grain processing, leisure and sightseeing tourism, and farming cultural experience. The modern base engaged in the production of vegetables, melons and fruits produces various types of pollution-free, green organic fruits and vegetables, with a total planting area of 58 acres. In 2017, it became one of the 105 agricultural characteristic towns released by the Agricultural Committee of Jiangsu Province.

Through the creation of a four-star rural tourist area, the North Taihu Lake (Wangting) tourist attraction gives full play to the leading and exemplary role of tourism in shaping a better rural life and supports the rural revitalization strategy.

At present, North Taihu Lake (Wangting) Tourist Scenic Area has become an open tourist scenic area integrating leisure, sightseeing, picking, farming experience, farm catering, and entertainment.

Surrounded by two rivers, mountains and silver mountains rise

The Grand Canal has witnessed the development history of the ancient town of Wangting. Together with the rice farming culture of Taihu Lake that has lasted for more than 4000 years, it together constitutes the "life gene" of "Daoxiang Town".

As the only township in Xiangcheng District with Taihu Lake and the Grand Canal resources, and is also an important agricultural town. Compared with the surrounding areas, the development of Wangting's secondary and tertiary industries is a little lacking in stamina. In 2016, Wangting Town proposed to "plan rural areas like planning cities, develop agriculture like industry, and operate farmland like enterprises." Focusing on the construction of characteristic rice pastoral villages, and through the high-quality development of agriculture, it will effectively promote the high-quality integrated development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries.

In the first half of 2017, the Jiangsu Province Agricultural Commission released a list of 105 agricultural characteristic towns, and Wangting Town, the "Daoxiang Town", was successfully shortlisted.

Relying on the construction of "Daoxiang Town", Wangting has made full use of canal resources and has gradually formed an industrial cluster integrating agriculture, leisure, ecology, culture, tourism, etc., depicting a "pastoral" with strong agriculture, beautiful countryside, and rich farmers. New blueprint ". Strolling along the ancient canal, the beautiful scenery is refreshing, and the themed open space that combines ancient charm, ancient appearance and modern atmosphere benefits both local residents and foreign tourists.

In 2017, the per capita net income of farmers in Wangting reached 32196 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.6%, which was more than 1200 yuan higher than the per capita net income of farmers in Xiangcheng District.

At the same time, Wangting's secondary industry also ushered in "spring".

Currently, Wangting is planning to build an intelligent manufacturing industrial park with a total planned area of 110 hectares. In just one year, 16 projects have been settled. The annual output value of these 16 projects is about 3 billion yuan, and the tax revenue is expected to reach 200 million yuan.

Lucid waters and green mountains are invaluable assets. In the future, Wangting Town will continue to promote and implement the series of policies and arrangements of the central, provincial, municipal and district governments on the "Rural Revitalization Strategy" in accordance with the general requirements of "prosperous industries, livable ecology, civilized rural customs, effective governance, and affluent life". Make agriculture a promising industry, make farmers an attractive profession, and make rural areas a beautiful home to live and work in peace and contentment.

Water-moistened Wangting Pavilion retains nostalgia in Jiangnan

Protecting the roots of history and culture, deeply exploring and activating their application, Wangting has never stopped protecting and inheriting the canal culture and Taihu Lake rice culture.

In 2013, Wangting Town established the Wangting Town Geochronology Museum, with a total construction area of more than 1000 square meters and an exhibition hall area of 700 square meters. Currently, the museum currently has 500 cultural relics in its collection, including 5 second-level cultural relics and 150 third-level cultural relics., 412 general and undetermined cultural relics.

More than 50 pieces of cultural relics from a complete range of categories unearthed at the Yuecheng Site and Luositun Site of the Ancient Wangting during the Neolithic, Liangzhu Period and various periods are displayed, providing great convenience for people to get close to the history and culture of Wangting.

In addition, the town cultural and sports center has intensified the inheritance and development of traditional culture, excavated and sorted out the ancient town, ancient sites, and relics of Wangting, and used unearthed cultural relics as evidence to carry out research on the rice cultivation culture of Wangting Water Town, a district-level intangible cultural heritage project.

At the country's first Farmers 'Harvest Festival, the sitcom "Daoxiang Town Canal Ancient Posthouse" written and performed by local mass actors at 56 Mingmingting was widely praised for its performance. Relying on the local long historical accumulation and connotation of canal culture and rice farming culture, Wangting Town deeply explores the long historical and cultural value of the town, gives full play to the cultural creativity of the local people, and creates a local cultural exchange project led by the masses and well received by the masses. The story of the canal's children competing to become the leader of the trend has won a group of fans.

When "history and culture" are infused with "elements of the times", Wangting, a historical ancient town, is even more thought-provoking under the infiltration of culture. Wangting will continue to rely on the cultural resources of the canal, actively protect and inherit the canal culture, maintain the level of agricultural modernization, promote agricultural intelligence, talent technology and brand building, realize the organic integration of "agriculture, culture, tourism and innovation", and create the "Daoxiang Town" Industrial cultural new business card.