The thousand-year-old canal carries a long cultural lineage. Tianjin's Wuqing district possesses a millennium of grain-transport heritage and combines traditional intangible cultural heritage craftsmanship with the vitality of digital cultural creativity. Today's Wuqing is home to century-old handicrafts such as carpets, silk flowers, and filigree inlay that continue to be passed down, while digital new business forms including online literature, web dramas, and online games are rising vigorously. In the first half of 2026, the number of cultural enterprises above designated size in Wuqing district reached 210, with operating revenue of 10.069 billion yuan, ranking among the top in Tianjin in both enterprise count and revenue.

A photo of Wuqing's urban area shows the Grand Canal passing through the city. All images in this article are from the Publicity Department of the Wuqing District Party Committee. Behind these data lies the accumulated strength of Wuqing's cultural industry. From the carpet looms of Cuihuangkou town to the digital screens of the Beijing-Tianjin Industrial New City, from the intangible heritage skills of Ma-style filigree inlay to the new track of AI plus film and television, traditional culture and emerging business forms are complementing each other in this key town near the capital. This sustained burst of industrial vitality is no accident; it benefits from continuous policy reinforcement and ongoing improvement of the business environment. Wuqing district has formulated specific measures, integrated and made good use of national and Tianjin policies encouraging cultural industry development, actively sought support for enterprises in land, talent, and financing, solved practical problems, and also established a special work team to strengthen business guidance and project demonstration for towns, streets, and parks, ensuring efficient resource allocation and precise policy implementation, and continuously optimizing the service environment and the development ecosystem of the cultural industry.

Along the canal, old crafts become industries that enrich the people

A city's cultural confidence comes from its historical accumulation. The Grand Canal's Wuqing section is 62.3 kilometers long, with historical origins traceable to the Pinglu Canal dug by Cao Cao in the late Eastern Han dynasty. After water transport development through the Sui and Tang dynasties, it became a grain reserve base on the outskirts of the Yuan capital by the Yuan dynasty. The Qing dynasty Kangxi Emperor once left an imperial stele here reading "guide the flow and aid transport." In 2014, the Wuqing section of the Grand Canal was inscribed on the World Heritage List as part of China's Grand Canal project. Caozili town's silk flower industry cultural park. Relying on the profound heritage nourished by the canal, Wuqing has cultivated a group of distinctive intangible heritage industries that are renowned nationwide and even impress the world. Caozili town, known as the "hometown of silk flowers," has a silk flower production history of more than 300 years, accounts for about one-third of the national market share in production scale, and has an annual total output value exceeding 1.2 billion yuan, with more than 60% sold overseas. Of the town's 28,000 people, more than 15,000 are engaged in silk flower production, forming a complete industrial chain from design, petal making, and stem making to assembly and packaging, enabling a small industry to leverage major prosperity for the people. Wuqing's intangible heritage skills frequently appear on national stages and enter the public eye. Ma Sai, a representative inheritor of Ma-style filigree inlay, once produced a "comb, hairpin, and crown" for the CCTV Spring Festival Gala program "Nian Jin," causing a national sensation, and later produced Song dynasty-style headwear for the 2026 CCTV Lantern Festival Gala, bringing Wuqing's intangible heritage skills twice into the view of Chinese people worldwide. In addition to Ma-style filigree inlay, traditional intangible heritage skills along the canal such as water-milled sesame oil, cloisonné handicraft production, and handmade frog buttons have gradually become important distinctive industries. More than a hundred years ago, carpet artisans from the Qing imperial household brought textile techniques back to their hometown, where they took root and grew in Cuihuangkou town. Today, the town is ranked alongside Dalton, Georgia in the United States and Gaziantep in Turkey as one of the world's three major carpet industry clusters. Cuihuangkou town produces hundreds of millions of carpets annually, with exports accounting for about 40% of the national total and covering more than 50 countries and regions worldwide. In the era of digital intelligence, Cuihuangkou town has not stood still, but has actively embraced intelligent technology to achieve iterative upgrading based on its century-old craft heritage. In the past two years, the town has led or participated in more than 2,000 process design innovations, driving more than 1,200 enterprises to achieve both strong production and sales. At the same time, the locality actively "goes global in groups," frequently appearing at international stages such as the Frankfurt exhibition and the Canton Fair, continuously polishing its regional brand and expanding international influence. Zhicai Palace — Cuihuangkou International Carpet Culture Exhibition Hall. It is reported that Wuqing district is currently promoting the transformation of traditional culture into distinctive industries. For example, it focuses on digital and intelligent transformation of advantageous industries such as carpet manufacturing and printing and packaging to enhance added value and competitiveness; and focuses on distinctive intangible heritage resources such as Dongmafang tofu shreds and Dongyushun sesame oil to promote integrated development models such as "intangible heritage plus design," "intangible heritage plus brand," and "intangible heritage plus e-commerce," allowing traditional business forms to regain new vitality through transformation and upgrading.

Pushing the "new three items" and seizing the high ground of online cultural value

As a bridgehead and main force in the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Wuqing proactively grasps the opportunities of digital cultural development, aligns with the development orientation of the cultural "new three items," vigorously lays out emerging business forms such as online literature, online film and television dramas, and online games, empowers cultural innovation with AI, and tells Wuqing's stories in the new era through digital creativity. Tongwulang Data Element Industrial Park. Focusing on the most cutting-edge AI film and television track, in August 2026, the Internet Technology Industrial Park of Wuqing Beijing-Tianjin Industrial New City formally signed a cooperation agreement with Beijing Dazhizuo Technology Co., Ltd. to jointly build Tianjin's first AIGC x OPC ecological community for film and television creation, and released the "AIGC x IP x OPC Plan," recruiting super creative individuals globally. The project is located in Wuqing district's Tongwulang Data Element Industrial Park, providing basic guarantees such as office space and talent apartments for settled creators, along with debut economy rewards and event competition rewards, with a maximum single reward of 1 million yuan in cash, and叠加 computing power vouchers and Token vouchers under a "dual voucher" subsidy policy, effectively strengthening factor support and striving to promote the clustered development of new quality productive forces in the field of film and television creation. Beijing Dazhizuo Technology Co., Ltd. is affiliated with UMG Lianbo Media Group and is a native film and television enterprise deeply engaged in the AI track. Its short film collection "Future Relationships" and work "Premarital Examination" successively won honors such as "Outstanding Commercial Value IP" and "Outstanding AI Film and Television Short Film" at the Beijing International Film Festival Film Carnival. A star enterprise that emerged from the Beijing International Film Festival ultimately chose to land its new business in Wuqing. The reason is that from computing power support to carrier facilities, from policy services to industrial coordination, Wuqing provides high-quality soil for the implementation of cutting-edge technology and creativity. Data shows that in 2025 the total output value of the national online game market reached 350.789 billion yuan, and the total output value of web drama business forms such as micro short dramas exceeded 100 billion yuan, showing rapid growth in the track. Wuqing district is leveraging its location advantage adjacent to Beijing, focusing on future new business forms such as AI plus film and television, panoramic virtual roaming, and metaverse cultural tourism, formulating special investment promotion plans, carrying out targeted investment promotion and investment promotion through businesses, striving to introduce and cultivate a group of high-quality content creation enterprises, platform operating institutions, and IP operating teams, seeking more high-quality projects to land in Wuqing, and accelerating the formation of emerging industrial clusters. In the view of industry insiders, Wuqing's logic for laying out the online audiovisual industry is forward-looking. At present, AIGC technology is iterating rapidly, and the technical threshold for content creation continues to decline, but high-quality original film and television IP with unique texture and long-term commercial value remains scarce. What Wuqing wants to seize is precisely the core value link of the content industry: "AI plus IP." It is worth noting that Wuqing district, relying on its location and cultural advantages, actively undertakes the gradient transfer of Beijing's cultural resources and has attracted a group of digital cultural enterprises to settle and cluster. For example, Meiri Quyue Company, registered in Wuqing, operates the "Watermelon Novel" app, aggregating massive legitimate novel resources covering multiple categories such as fantasy, romance, and suspense, and owns multiple software copyrights. At present, Wuqing district is promoting deep integration of online literature with business forms such as web dramas and online games, and building an online literature industry ecosystem covering content production, platform operation, and IP derivation.

Promoting industry through culture, empowering urban and rural livability and tourism through culture

The value of the cultural industry lies not only in the growth of economic data, but also in all-round empowerment of urban quality and people's livelihood and well-being. Data shows that in 2025 Wuqing's "new commercial district" held more than 50 high-end cultural performances, cumulatively held more than 150 "competition, exhibition, and performance" activities such as music carnivals and half marathons, issued 7.4 million yuan in various special consumption vouchers, and the core area of the "new commercial district" attracted more than 16.78 million visitors, achieving comprehensive revenue of 6.489 billion yuan. Wuqing also launched the "Support Measures for the Development of the Commercial District Economy in Wuqing District (Trial)" and established the "Wuqing District Fund for Supporting Commercial District Economic Development," investing 100 million yuan to create nine major consumption scenarios of "competition, exhibition, performance, food, accommodation, shopping, entertainment, training, and tourism" and introduce the "high-end fashion consumption and car culture experience" industrial cluster. Wuqing Creative Milan. Today's Wuqing has completely bid farewell to the stereotype of "single shopping" and achieved a magnificent transformation from a "transit stop" between Beijing and Tianjin to a regional micro-vacation "destination." Relying on commercial carriers such as Florence Town, Creative Milan, and V1 Auto World, Wuqing district has created fashion consumption tourism routes, integrating cultural consumption into residents' daily lives. At Creative Milan, families with children can experience intangible heritage skills such as cloisonné enamel and ancient-style incense making, and in the Grand Canal Century Humanities Scene Hall, they can "travel" through a hundred years of canal time with the help of a light and shadow theater. In addition, Wuqing district also integrates core resources such as the canal, intangible heritage, and commercial districts, launching various parent-child interaction and cultural activities, upgrading cultural consumption from "visiting exhibitions and buying cultural creative products" to a daily choice integrated into parent-child education and leisure vacations. Many tourists from Beijing and Hebei praise it: "In the past, when we came to Wuqing, we just bought things and left after buying. Now we find that Wuqing is a very fun place. There are things to see, play, and eat, and the experience is very rich." Rural culture is also taking on new life. In Gangbeixinzhuang village, Dajianchang town, the collective annual income before renovation was less than 200,000 yuan. The village renovated an old power distribution room idle for more than 40 years by "making old as old," turning it into an educated youth canteen experience hall and continuously holding the "Countryside in Memory" small night market. In the summer of 2026, the night market spread across three main streets in the village, setting up six major sections including nostalgic alleys, fireworks square, and open-air movies, cumulatively attracting more than 60,000 tourists from Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei, increasing collective income by more than 130,000 yuan, driving night market economic output value to exceed 2.3 million yuan, and enabling more than 30 villagers to take up "night economy" jobs at their doorstep. Here, one can see both the warmth of everyday life and real money. Based on the overall situation of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development, Wuqing continues to deepen Tongwulang cultural and tourism linkage. In April 2026, the fourth Tongwulang Grand Canal Cultural Performance opened in Tianhu village, Gaocun town, Wuqing district, where Beijing Tongzhou's Jingdong drums, Tianjin Wuqing's tai chi, and Hebei Langfang's Hebei bangzi gathered together, and the cultural and tourism departments of the three places jointly released key recommended sites and tourism routes for the May Day holiday. Wuqing launched five major theme sections with a total of 24 distinctive activities, linking the three places to offer discounts for scenic spots, dining, accommodation, shopping, and other business forms along the route, gradually transforming from a "Beijing-Tianjin transit stop" into a "regional tourism destination." The canal's cultural lineage is passed on from generation to generation, and old and new business forms thrive together. From traditional intangible heritage inheritance to digital cultural creative breakthroughs, from bustling commercial district consumption scenes to rural fireworks and people-enriching vistas, Wuqing has always adhered to upholding tradition while innovating, promoting industry through culture, and nourishing the city through culture, continuously promoting the two-way improvement and all-area upgrading of cultural undertakings and the cultural industry, and empowering regional livability, business suitability, and high-quality development with high-quality cultural development.