Gongchen Bridge of the Grand Canal 大运河拱宸桥

Welcome, everyone. We're now at the starting point of the Grand Canal Gongchen Bridge scenic area: Grand Canal Plaza. The plaza sits directly south of Gongchen Bridge and serves as the main entrance and gathering space for the entire canal area. As you can see, it's wonderfully open, paved with neat stonework that stretches south to Lishui Road and faces the arches of Gongchen Bridge to the north. Standing in the centre and looking north, Gongchen Bridge rises like a great stone rainbow spanning the canal, with white-walled, black-tiled houses spreading along both banks — one of the most iconic views in Hangzhou, and a perfect spot for photos.

Take a moment to notice the paving details and sculptures in the centre of the plaza; they each tell a piece of the canal's story. The plaza isn't just a visitor gathering point — it's also a place where Hangzhou locals come to relax on any given day. During holidays and festivals you'll find dragon-boat races, canal lantern festivals, and intangible heritage markets here, and the atmosphere is wonderfully lively. After the Grand Canal was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2014, Gongchen Bridge and Qiaoxi Historical and Cultural Block were included in the World Heritage buffer zone — which means the ground we're standing on right now is already part of a World Heritage Site.

If you have a camera, I'd recommend walking to the north edge of the plaza near the water to capture a straight-on panorama of the bridge. Around eight or nine in the morning, light comes in from the east and casts soft shadows on the west face of the bridge, making the stone arches look beautifully three-dimensional. In the late afternoon, the setting sun gilds the arches and the water surface in gold — a completely different mood. When you frame your shot, try to include both an arch and its reflection in the water below for a real sense of depth.

Now, after your photos, let's head north and walk up onto this ancient bridge with nearly four hundred years of history.

Welcome, everyone. We're now standing on Gongchen Bridge. Construction of this bridge began in the fourth year of the Chongzhen reign of the Ming dynasty — that's 1631 — funded by a local scholar named Zhu Huafeng. It was later rebuilt several times during the Qing dynasty under the reigns of Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Guangxu. Look up and you'll see that Gongchen Bridge is a three-arch stone bridge: the central arch is the largest, with a span of around 15 metres, flanked by one smaller arch on each side. The bridge is 98 metres long and about 16 metres tall, making it the tallest and longest surviving stone arch bridge in Hangzhou.

Look down at the bridge surface and you'll see a distinct groove running down the centre — this is called a tow-path groove. In the days before mechanical power, cargo boats on the Grand Canal had to be pulled upstream by trackers hauling ropes along the bank. That groove was worn into the stone over centuries of rope friction. Think of the thousands of boatmen, trackers, merchants, and travellers who have crossed this bridge — the stone slabs have been smoothed completely flat by their footsteps. Please watch your footing carefully, especially on rainy days when the stone steps become very slippery. Hold the stone railings on both sides as you walk.

Along both sides of the bridge you'll find stone balustrades with cloud-pattern carvings on the panels. At the crown of the bridge, a stone tablet bears the name "Gongchen Bridge." The name comes from the Analects of Confucius, carrying the meaning that all directions gather and all hearts turn here, as stars revolve around the North Star. During the Qing dynasty, Emperors Kangxi and Qianlong each made six southern inspection tours to Hangzhou and always disembarked here when entering the city — which is why Gongchen Bridge was known in ancient times as the "Imperial Wharf," the place where the emperor was received in full ceremonial splendour.

When you reach the top of the bridge, do stop and take in the view on both sides. To the north you'll see the full sweep of Qiaoxi Historical and Cultural Block; to the south, the Grand Canal Plaza and the modern city skyline. Cargo boats and pleasure cruisers still glide along the canal from time to time. This is the finest vantage point for a panoramic view of the canal. In the early morning or at dusk, when the water is calm, the arches and buildings reflect clearly on the surface, and the sensation of a great bridge linking north and south is genuinely breathtaking. For photos, try pressing your phone or camera close to the railing and composing with the rule of thirds: the bridge arch filling the lower third of the frame, the sky filling the upper third — that's the most striking composition.

After taking in the view, let's continue north, descend from the bridge, and enter Qiaoxi Historical and Cultural Block.

Welcome, everyone. We've now crossed to the west side of Gongchen Bridge, and this is Qiaoxi Historical and Cultural Block. Notice the stone-slab path underfoot — many of these blue-grey flagstones are original pieces from the Qing and Republican periods. The buildings line the canal in a ribbon, with white walls, black tiles, and horse-head gables: classic Jiangnan waterside architecture. This was once one of the busiest commercial and industrial districts along the Hangzhou canal, packed with cocoon warehouses, rice shops, teahouses, and pharmacies, with merchants and boats coming and going without pause.

Look at the buildings and you'll notice a distinctive feature called a "crossing gallery" — a walkway that connects two buildings overhead, bridging the street at second-floor level. This design saved ground space, made it easy for neighbours to visit each other, and provided shelter from sun and rain. It's an ingeniously practical piece of old Jiangnan urban design. Many of the older houses also have stepped horse-head gables on their side walls. These served not just as a visual feature but mainly as firebreaks — in the days when timber-framed buildings were vulnerable to fire, a high horse-head wall could stop flames from spreading to a neighbouring house.

Today, after careful protective renovation, the old buildings have been preserved but their interiors reimagined as museums, bookshops, teahouses, craft studios, and specialty shops. Take your time strolling through — pick up a Hangzhou oil-paper umbrella, sip a cup of Longjing tea, or step into a heritage pastry shop and try a piece of dingsheng cake. The pace here is slow and pleasantly everyday, a vivid contrast to the modern commercial district on the south side of the canal.

For photos, I'd recommend finding a narrow lane along the water and framing the flagstone path, horse-head gables, and the canal together in one shot. Or stand on one of the small stone bridges and shoot downward for a bird's-eye view of the roofline curves on both banks. Between seven and eight in the morning, sunlight falls diagonally across the white walls for strong shadow contrasts; in the evening, when lanterns along the riverbank light up, the whole scene takes on a soft, warm Jiangnan waterside glow.

Coming up next, we'll step inside the first museum in the block — the China Umbrella Museum.

Welcome, everyone. We've now arrived at the China Umbrella Museum, located within Qiaoxi Historical and Cultural Block. This is the only national museum in China dedicated entirely to umbrella culture, and for anyone who loves craftsmanship and cultural history, it's well worth your full attention.

As you walk in, you'll see displays about the origins of the umbrella. The earliest umbrellas were not actually made for rain — they were ceremonial sunshades. In ancient China, emperors and nobles travelling in procession would have attendants holding great canopy umbrellas called "huagai" above them, as a symbol of rank and authority. Over time, craftspeople began coating paper with tung oil to make it water-resistant, and the oil-paper umbrella gradually entered the everyday lives of ordinary people.

The most rewarding section to look at is the recreation of a traditional oil-paper umbrella workshop. A single traditional oil-paper umbrella goes through more than eighty handcrafted steps — splitting bamboo, making the frame, covering it with paper, painting, and oiling — all done entirely by hand. Watch as the artisans stretch thin bark paper over the ribs, paint birds, landscapes, and opera figures onto the surface, then coat it again and again with tung oil until the paper becomes both waterproof and supple. Hangzhou and the neighbouring district of Yuhang are both known for their oil-paper umbrellas, and the West Lake silk umbrella — which uses silk rather than paper for the canopy — is a uniquely Hangzhou craft: light, elegant, and delicate.

Alongside Chinese umbrellas, the museum also displays distinctive umbrella styles from Japan, Thailand, Britain, France, and other countries, giving you a sense of how different cultures have interpreted and reinvented this everyday object. Near the exit you'll usually find umbrella-themed gifts and souvenirs — a miniature oil-paper umbrella or a small silk umbrella makes a lovely memento.

For photos, the lighting in the recreated workshop is soft and warm, ideal for close-up shots of craft detail. If you're lucky enough to see an artisan working live, make sure to capture their hands — weathered, calloused, and full of story. That's where the real picture is.

After the umbrella museum, it's just a short walk to our next stop — the China Knives, Scissors and Swords Museum.

Welcome, everyone. We've arrived at the China Knives, Scissors and Swords Museum — another national-level specialist museum, and one with a rather striking theme: blades, scissors, and swords. These might sound like everyday objects, but they thread through thousands of years of Chinese military history, the history of tools, and the history of everyday life.

The first part of the exhibition typically covers swords and blades. You'll move through Neolithic stone knives and axes, Shang and Zhou dynasty bronze swords, the ring-pommel swords of the Qin and Han periods, the horizontal swords of the Tang, and the waist swords of the Ming and Qing — a complete visual journey through the evolution of Chinese ancient weapons. One category especially worth pausing at is the beautifully decorated bronze swords bearing inscriptions. The Yue King swords unearthed from the Wu-Yue region represent the highest achievement in bronze casting of the Spring and Autumn period.

The second part of the exhibition will feel more familiar — scissors. When it comes to Hangzhou scissors, one name is inescapable: Zhang Xiaoquan. Founded in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Zhang Xiaoquan has a history of more than three hundred years, renowned for its uniformly inlaid steel, finely ground blades, sharp cutting edge, and smooth action. Look at the old scissors in the display cases — some fit in the palm of your hand, some are barely finger-length. There are scissors for cutting cloth, for cutting flowers, for trimming fingernails, even for cutting Chinese herbal medicine. A small pair of scissors, it turns out, reflects a distinctly Chinese attention to the fine details of daily life.

The museum also has an interactive forging workshop area where craftspeople sometimes demonstrate the process of hammering, quenching, and edge-grinding live. Get close and listen to the ring of the hammer on the anvil — that rhythmic clanging is the most authentic sound of China's traditional craft industry.

For photos, ancient blades and swords catch the light beautifully in the display cases, giving off a cool metallic gleam that works well in close-up. The scissors section is colourful and varied — a photo of neatly arranged scissors makes for a great social media post. Please remember not to use flash inside the exhibition hall, and do not touch the objects on display.

Coming up: another equally fascinating museum — the China Fan Museum.

Welcome, everyone. We've now arrived at the China Fan Museum — the first museum in China dedicated to fan culture. The collection here is wonderfully comprehensive, ranging from the great ceremonial fans carried in imperial processions to the folding fans that scholars kept at their side, all the way to the palm-leaf fans of ordinary households, covering virtually every aspect of Chinese fan culture.

Your first impression will be the display on the origins of the fan. Initially, fans were not used for cooling — they were ritual objects. Ancient emperors on procession would have palace ladies holding great "barrier fans" behind them, to screen dust and wind and to project an air of authority. Over time fans grew smaller and became the elegant accessories of the scholarly class. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, folding fans were especially fashionable among the literati of Jiangnan: the ribs could be carved, the panel could be painted or inscribed with calligraphy, and carrying one was both a way to keep cool and a statement of taste and standing.

The highlight of the museum is the fine Hangzhou fan section. Wang Xingji, one of the most celebrated fan makers in China, was founded in 1875 during the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty. Wang Xingji's sandalwood fans, white-paper fans, and silk palace fans each have their own character: sandalwood fans carry a quiet, lasting fragrance as you fan the air; white-paper fans, with their bright and fine-grained surface, are ideal for calligraphy and painting; silk palace fans are made with a silk panel, exquisitely refined and elegant. In the display cases you can see carving on fan ribs as fine as a single strand of hair, and meticulous gongbi-style paintings of landscapes, birds, flowers, and figures on the panels — work that takes an artisan weeks or even months to complete.

The gallery usually also features a dedicated section on fan painting and calligraphy. Many great Chinese painters and calligraphers through the ages worked on fan panels, because the unusual shape makes composition more demanding than a standard piece — only true masters handle the format with ease.

Photo tips: the lighting in the fan painting and calligraphy section is thoughtfully arranged and suits close-ups of panel details. In the sandalwood fan section you can catch a faint, lingering fragrance — and while cameras can't capture a scent, a close-up shot of carved fan ribs conveys the artistry perfectly.

After the fan museum, we continue forward to the Hangzhou Arts and Crafts Museum.

Welcome, everyone. We've arrived at the Hangzhou Arts and Crafts Museum, which was converted from the former Honglei Silk Weaving Factory here in Qiaoxi. As you walk in, you'll notice the space feels exceptionally tall and open — the character of the old industrial building has been kept very much intact.

Hangzhou has been a city of exceptional craftsmanship since ancient times: silk, embroidery, fans, scissors, umbrellas, ceramics, bamboo weaving, wood carving — nearly every one of these traditions can produce items of national or even world-class quality. This museum works like a grand showcase of all Hangzhou's crafts, bringing the most representative traditional arts together in one place.

There are several galleries particularly worth your attention. First, the Southern Song Guan ware celadon. During the Southern Song period, Hangzhou served as the imperial capital, then known as Lin'an, and the court established a dedicated kiln here to produce ceramics for the palace. Southern Song Guan ware is celebrated for its powdery blue-green and grey-green glazes, thick and mellow in texture, with a naturally crackled surface that resembles a pattern of ice fractures — considered a pinnacle of Chinese ceramic art. Second, Hangzhou embroidery. Hangzhou's embroidery is best known for its coiled gold and coiled silver work, typically used for imperial robes, theatrical costumes, and religious objects — magnificently bright and ornate. Third, Xiaoshan lace — a lace-like textile made from cotton or silk threads, with intricate patterns that were once widely exported to Europe and the Americas.

The museum also hosts master studios where you can often catch intangible heritage practitioners at work. Sometimes you can join in and try painting a fan panel, making an oil-paper umbrella, or embroidering a sachet. If you have the time, it's absolutely worth trying your hand — making something yourself gives you a far deeper feel for a craftsperson's dedication than simply looking at exhibits.

Photo tips: the red brick walls and large steel windows of the old factory are naturally photogenic for an industrial aesthetic, ideal for lifestyle portraits. In the master studios, candid shots of artisans' focused expressions and their hands at work are full of narrative power. If you're thinking of buying a souvenir, the museum gift shop carries several master-collaboration pieces — priced higher than generic gifts, but the quality and design are genuinely superior.

After this museum, we've covered the main highlights of Qiaoxi Historical and Cultural Block. We'll now cross the bridge to the east side and visit a small temple with a very local character — Zhang Daxian Temple.

Welcome, everyone. We're now on the north-east side of Gongchen Bridge, where a modest but story-rich little temple stands: Zhang Daxian Temple. The temple was first built during the Qing dynasty and is dedicated to Zhang Shenggui, a Daoist practitioner of the Ming dynasty, whom local people came to revere as "Zhang the Great Immortal."

Legend has it that Zhang Shenggui lived during the Ming dynasty, practising medicine around Hangzhou and regularly treating poor patients free of charge, deeply loved by the local community. After his death, folk tradition held that he would appear along the canal, protecting boats and keeping the people safe — and so a temple was built beside Gongchen Bridge in his honour, where incense has burned from generation to generation. In the old days, the boatmen, trackers, and merchants who used the canal would come here to light incense and pray for safe passage before setting out on a long journey.

Zhang Daxian Temple is modest in scale, but its architectural layout is beautifully typical: gate, courtyard, and main hall arranged in sequence, with a statue of Zhang Daxian inside the hall and murals on the side walls depicting his life story. The wood carvings and painted decoration are characteristic of late Qing folk temple art — not as grand as a great Buddhist monastery, but immediate, lively, and carrying a deep undercurrent of everyday community spirit.

What makes this temple particularly special is the relationship it has maintained with its neighbourhood over the centuries. For hundreds of years it has served as both a spiritual anchor and a community gathering place for people living on the east side of the bridge. At New Year and during major festivals, temple fairs, opera performances, and dragon dances fill the surrounding streets with life. For visitors from abroad, this is a vivid and intimate window into Chinese folk belief and neighbourhood culture.

Photo tips: the architectural details of the temple, the curling incense smoke rising from the burners, and elderly locals sitting in the sun on the doorstep all make for beautifully human-scale images. Please keep your voice low and be respectful toward worshippers at prayer.

From Zhang Daxian Temple, we'll walk west along the canal to our next destination — a space that feels entirely different: Xiaohe Park, converted from a former industrial oil depot.

Welcome, everyone. We've arrived at Xiaohe Park. This place has a fascinating story: it was originally a Sinopec oil depot, with several massive cylindrical storage tanks, steel pipe galleries, and gantry cranes. After 2019, Hangzhou undertook a careful protective renovation of the site, preserving the old tanks and steel structures while transforming the grounds into the waterfront park you see today, full of art and everyday life.

Look at those silver-grey tanks — each one is three or four storeys tall, still wearing the look of the industrial age on the outside, but the interiors have been converted into exhibition spaces, cafes, and viewing platforms. The tops of some tanks have been opened up and planted with greenery, so sunlight pours down from above in a way that feels almost dreamlike. Between the tanks, the open ground is laid with lawns and wooden walkways, along with numerous contemporary art installations. Young people in particular love coming here to take photos, have picnics, and watch the sunset.

The most magical time at Xiaohe Park is the evening. As the sun slowly sets in the west, golden light falls across the metal tank surfaces and reflects onto the canal water, and the whole park becomes something like an industrial oil painting. After dark, the tanks and steel frames are lit with warm amber light, glowing across the water toward the historic block on the far bank — one side a century of industrial heritage, the other a thousand years of canal history. The sense of time layered on time is extraordinary.

Photo tips: this is an ideal location for industrial-aesthetic portraits. Stand beside one of the tanks and shoot upward with a wide-angle lens to emphasise the scale of the structures; or sit on the lawn with the tank and sky as your backdrop for something more relaxed and unhurried. The best shooting window is about one hour before sunset, when the light is soft and the colours are warm.

After exploring Xiaohe Park, we have one final highlight left on our canal journey — Fuyi Granary.

Welcome, everyone. We've arrived at the last stop of today's journey — Fuyi Granary. Fuyi Granary stands at the confluence of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and Shengli River. It was built in the sixth year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty — that's 1880 — and it is the only surviving grain depot of the canal transport system remaining in Hangzhou.

"Canal transport" refers to the ancient Chinese national system of shipping grain from the fertile south up through the waterway network to the capital in the north. During the Qing dynasty, cities in Jiangnan such as Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Yangzhou were major grain-producing regions, while Beijing depended on large quantities of grain shipped from the south to feed the imperial court, the military, and the population. Fuyi Granary was one of the largest official storehouses in Hangzhou at the time, capable of holding tens of thousands of shi of grain — roughly several thousand metric tons at its peak. There is a well-known saying: "In the north, Nanxin Granary; in the south, Fuyi Granary." Nanxin Granary in Beijing and Fuyi Granary in Hangzhou, one at each end of the canal, together underpinned the food security of the entire Qing empire.

Look at how the granary was built — it follows the slope of the land, with rows of white-walled, black-tiled buildings stepping up the hillside, all with hard gable roofs and relatively small windows and doors. This design minimised moisture, vermin, and theft. Inside, the floors were raised on wooden boards to allow air to circulate beneath the stored grain, keeping it dry and preventing mould.

Part of Fuyi Granary has now been converted into a grain-culture exhibition space and a creative-industry park, hosting exhibitions on canal history, the history of grain, and urban memory. As you walk along the flagstone paths, try to picture the scene here more than a hundred years ago: canal boats lined up at the bank, workers hauling sack after sack of rice in and out, voices and work chants rising and falling — a scene of extraordinary, purposeful energy.

Photo tips: the layered composition of white walls, black tiles, and sloping ground lends itself to low-angle upward shots or high-angle downward shots. On a rainy day, the wet flagstones reflect the light and the white walls look their cleanest and brightest — a perfect setting for a classic Jiangnan atmosphere.

And that, everyone, brings our journey along the Grand Canal to a close. From Grand Canal Plaza, over Gongchen Bridge, through the four museums of Qiaoxi Historical and Cultural Block, across to Zhang Daxian Temple on the east bank, and then along the canal to Xiaohe Park and Fuyi Granary — together we've walked through four centuries of an ancient bridge, a thousand years of canal history, an era of industry, and the life of a city today. We hope you carry with you a warm memory of Hangzhou and the Grand Canal. Thank you all.