Shangtang River is the first recorded manual dredged waterway in the region of Hangzhou. We also call it Qin River because of its original digger, the first Emperor Qin Shihuang.
Sui cause for six years (AD 610), the emperor Ysng of Sui ordered to dig a canal, which took the Shangtang river as its south end, therefore it becomes the only passageway to Hangzhou. In the Tang dynasty years, the old bridge of ancient pinetree started to be built which is exactly the Dongxin River in Zhaohui campus of the Zhejiang University of Technology. In the Song dynasty, Shangtang river was also named as Yunyan river. The public used this river to ship rice to the north at a steady flow, encouraging a great many private business to flourish. It’s role as a channel did not decline until the Yuan dynasty(1359), when Zhang Shicheng ordered 200,000 civilians to dig a new canal, starting from Tanxi wulin to Jiangzhang Bridge. This became the Jiangnan branch canal.
After all those thousand’s of years of shipping history, the Shangtang River is still busy as it realizes the shift of modern humans and culture. All kinds of cultural elements and cultural scenery are perfectly blended and add radiance and beauty to each other, harmonizing brilliantly.
The Shangtang river in Zhaohui campus of Zhejiang university of technology is the strategic pass where the Prince Wu and King Goujian fought each other, the touring route that the first emperor used to spread central plains culture to the south declaring that all cultural development was similar and had identical principles, and the vital passway for YueFei’ anti-Jin. Many historical figures have passed the ShangTang river such as ShenKuo (scientist, the northern Song, Su Dongpo (poet, northern Song) ,Lu You(poet,southern Song), Li Qingzhao(female poet, southern Song) ,Marco Po, Luan Xiaoqi, and Zhang Shun (the characters in Water Margin). Even the legend of the White lady and XvXian is affiliated with the ShangTang river.
With the construction of economic development of the city, the ShangTang river got black and smelly. The part of the river that crossed the school even got a nickname “black dragon river” and no one could tolerate the smell. In 1996, Hangzhou Municipal Government began to regulate river pollution while we put forward a pollution control program. Though the river is still a little muddy, it is certainly not smelly any more. In addition, we hold a boat competition on the river every year.
Since the 21st century, and committed to Canal World Heritage, we take full advantage of the old canal going through our campus and propagate knowledge of canal protection. We also hold canoeing competitions and a canal culture festival annually, forming traditional activities of characteristic “canal culture.” The theme of the festival is steeped in protecting the canal and propagating knowledge of environmental impact. A series of cultural awards are named after canal, like “Canal Scholar” and ”Canal Cup.” Extracurricular Scientific and Technological Competitions have permeated students’ daily life, giving the canal rich cultural colors.
In the summer of 2006, Zhejiang industry university began a community outreach campaign referred to as the "road to the north along the canal and promote the inscription" summer social practice team. Students started from Hangzhou and travelled to Hubei. In each city along the canal, students collected inscription signatures, distributed questionnaires, performed community activities, and displayed the six surface signature flag post, indicative of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. The campaign picked up media coverage from Liberation Daily, Chinese education news, the central government portal, xinhuanet.com, people.com.cn, youth, Zhejiang satellite TV, Zhejiang daily, Xuzhou daily, Qilu Evening News, Yangzhou evening news, and Chinese online broadcast, to name a few. It was such a great success that more than 70 media outlets and more than 120 papers reported the story.
Today, the Grande Canal has been successfully included in the world heritage list. The Zhejiang University of Technology, the Provincial Department of construction, and the first batch of national "2011 Plan” project led by the University, enjoy having this unique location advantage amongst the high bosom of a world cultural heritage. This ancient canal peacefully flows, forming stark contrast to the sound of city and student life.
