The Grand Canal in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo by Zhang Wentao/For chinadaily.com.cn]

The ongoing 2022 Taipei Summer Travel Expo, an annual tourism promotion event in Taiwan, has opened a window for Taiwan people to learn about the world's longest artificial waterway, the Grand Canal, from a tourism perspective.

During the four-day event, the Taipei office of the Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits (ATETS) will promote the scenic spots, cultural traditions and intangible cultural heritage sites along the Grand Canal on the mainland.

With a history of more than 2,500 years, the Grand Canal connects Beijing and Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang province, serving as a significant transportation artery in ancient China. An over 1,000-km-stretch of the canal was declared a world heritage site in 2014.

The Taipei office of the ATETS has also offered visitors various informational resources regarding mainland travel.

A Taipei resident surnamed Chen was spotted enthusiastically skimming through the album of the high-speed railway connecting Shanghai with Kunming, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan province. "This route starts from my mother's hometown Shanghai and traverses many famous places such as Hangzhou and Yiwu, and finally reaches Kunming," said Chen, who is in his 60s, adding that he hopes to make a trip to the mainland in August.

The travel expo, which opened on July 15, has also attracted foreign travel agencies from countries such as the Philippines, India and Germany. About 200 enterprises and tourism agencies from 14 counties and cities of Taiwan have taken part in the event.