The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal Association is a voluntary organisation, consisting at present of over 1000 volunteers and 27 part-time workers, devoted to the protection of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Our members hail from schools, companies and government bodies from the provinces and cities along the canal, with ages ranging from 7 to 62. We have our own website and forum and branch organisations in canal cities, and an ongoing programme of recruiting and training what we call ‘Grand Canal Green Volunteers’, along with practical environmental and cultural protection activities.

Our Purpose.

    Through our volunteers’ publicity and activities, we aim to raise society’s awareness of the Grand Canal and its protection. In doing so, we place particular emphasis on hands-on participation, especially amongst younger members.

Our Goals.

    We aim to establish a steady and high-quality body of volunteers; to make the idea of protecting the Grand Canal achieve greater social recognition and support; to hold local and national activities at regular intervals which will promote the work of protecting and managing the canal’s environment; the promote the task of protecting the cultural relics of the canal; to accept the mission to spread the story of the canal’s culture so as to help in the work of transmitting that culture to future generations and encourage all of society to actively participate in canal protection work and create a beautiful and harmonious Grand Canal.

Our Duties.

1. To set up a public website to act as a channel for our volunteers to access information and exchange ideas.
2. The General Planning Office oversees overall planning for publicity and activities, and guides the work of our branch organisations.
3. The Publicity and Public Relations Office provides materials for our themed activities and decides on slogans etc, and makes contact with outside agencies and individuals, including NGOs both within China and abroad.
4. The Online Cooperation Office is responsible for the online liaison work for our activities and for the technical support of our website and forum.
5. Volunteer Services deal with practical activities such as recruiting, managing and training members and organising informal meetings and film screenings.
6. The Newsletter Editing Office looks after the editing of our in-house newsletter, ‘The Grand Canal Green Volunteer’ and the updating of our website and forum.
7. The Cultural Legacy Office, by maintaining links with the government organs which are responsible for the canal’s cultural legacy and by cooperating in publicity and activities, takes an interest in how that legacy is being handed down to future generations.
8. The Grand Canal Research Office invites people from various backgrounds to engage in research on aspects such as the canal’s environment, history and culture.
9. The Protection Patrol Office undertakes the supervision of the canal’s environmental protection and management and the protection of its cultural heritage, and gathers and feeds back data.
10. We actively cooperate with NGOs which can help our volunteers with their needs, help in training people for posts, and recommend talented individuals to take part in suitable activities. For example, we send volunteers to participate in activities organised by friendly volunteer groups and to conduct interviews, exchanges and so on.

Our Administrative Structure.

    A secretariat is selected and trained from amongst the volunteers. The secretariat is composed from the eight working offices, each with two secretaries, responsible for the concrete implementation of relevant items such as planning, recruitment, training, external relations, publicity, transportation and finances. Each locality’s organisation is basically the same as this.

Our Volunteers’ Administrative Model.

    Each volunteer has their own file, in which we record their professional background, specialised fields and activities they have participated in. The secretariat is in overall charge of administering and training volunteers. There are no fees, and joining and leaving the organisation are up to the individual concerned.

Let’s act to spread the word about the Grand Canal and make sure it’s protected!