Channeling greatness (3)

Too little, too late

In response to this question, Metropolitan conducted an impromptu, unscientific survey on 10 tourists. Seven of them responded that they would love to "drop by for a few minutes" at the newly rebuilt canal. Three said they had no interest in it.

One of the three dissenting tourists, Zhang Mingren, 33, a storage company manager from Henan Province, said, "There are so many more attractive and real artifacts in this city. Why spend my time on replicas?"

Gao Wei, secretary general of the Beijing Folk Art Association, told Metropolitan that most of the relics connected to the Grand Canal have already been lost.

"In the old days, the Grand Canal served as the supply channel for the imperial capital. But the development of highways and railways has supplanted the canal's purpose and led to the decline and disappearance of canal-related business. The architecture surrounding the canal was abandoned, ruined or converted for other purposes," said Gao.

"The Grand Canal has died because its time has passed. How can you promote something which no longer exists?" Gao said. "The money should not be spent on building up cheap copies of ancient buildings, but used on preserving real old Beijing culture."

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