The State Council agreed on the proposal to set up a joint conference on protecting the Grand Canal culture on June 24.

The duty of the conference is to coordinate the work on the protection and heritage of the Grand Canal, study policies and plans, and direct major projects and measures.

The conference will be led by the National Development and Reform Commission, which submitted the proposal.

The joint conference is composed of 17 State Council departments and eight provinces or cities, including the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province.

The office of the conference will be placed at the National Development and Reform Commission, which will be in charge of the regular work. The head of the commission, He Lifeng, was appointed as the convener of the conference.

The Grand Canal is the world’s longest manmade waterway, with a length of almost 3,200 km, including the part stretching from Beijing to Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang province. It has a history of more than 2,500 years.