The 2020 World Canal Cities Forum kicked off on Monday in Yangzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province. Themed on sustainable prosperity and development of cultural tourism industry of world canal cities, the forum aimed to exchange and showcase the successful practice and advanced experience of the world canal culture and provided useful references for the development of the world's canal cities and canal culture. 500 officials, experts and scholars from home and abroad discussed the topic of how the cultural tourism industry of canal cities can continue to achieve long-term, prosperous development, and reached broad consensus at the forum. The protection, inheritance and utilization of the Grand Canal culture is in the best period of history, as China has ramped up efforts to push forward the fine protection of the Grand Canal and has issued a plan on the construction of national culture parks for the Grand Canal, Liu Qibao, vice-chairperson of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said at the forum. Wu Zhenglong, governor of Jiangsu Province, noted that Jiangsu will strive to promote the construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt and build the Jiangsu section of the Grand Canal into a culture business card for the province. A variety of activities, such as the 2020 Canal Carnival and the 2020 World Canal Cities Food Expo, were also staged during the event in a bid to further demonstrate the cultural charm and show great vitality of the Grand Canal. Founded in 2007, the annual World Canal Cities Forum has become a well-known platform for boosting cooperation among canal cities and promoting heritage protection, tourism development, environmental governance, urban construction, protection of the Grand Canal, and economic and cultural exchange among canal cities. See the original link: https://en.imsilkroad.com/p/316588.html SOURCE Xinhua Silk Road Information Service Image Attachments Links: Link: https://iop.asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=373103 Caption: The 2020 World Canal Cities Forum kicks off on Monday in Yangzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province.