Abstract
The spatial distribution characteristics and development process of national Intangible Cultural Heritage items (ICHs) in the Grand Canal Cultural Belt are closely related to the excavation and passage of the canal. Guided by the theory of the "man-land relationship areal system", the study used geographical space-time analysis to explore the spatial distribution characteristics of national ICHs in the broader and narrower Grand Canal Cultural Belt and measured the factors affecting the spatial distribution of ICHs in both quantitative and qualitative terms. The results show that: (1) The national ICHs in the Grand Canal Cultural Belt as a whole closely follow the developed central regions of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang to form a cluster and take the high administrative level, economic development areas and historical and cultural cities along the canal as the core cluster areas in the provincial and municipal scales; (2) The Grand Canal Cultural Belt in a narrow sense is the main gathering area for all types of national ICHs, especially in the core cities along the canal, such as Beijing, Tianjin, Langfang, Suzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Ningbo. (3) the evolution trend of national ICHs in the Grand Canal Cultural Belt of different batches shows the cohesion trend to the canal always point area, and the core cities along the canal are still the main distribution areas of national ICHs in different batches, which further proves the close correlation between the canal and ICHs; (4) The results of Geodetector show that human factors have stronger explanatory power than natural factors, and the closer to the canal, the influence of human factors and natural factors on the spatial distribution of national ICHs are increased. Among human factors, the inheritors and financial support for cultural tourism are the most significant. The historical factors shape the depth of the connotation of ICHs in the historical space and time. The above study shows that a good natural and cultural ecological space of the canal is an important guarantee for the effective protection and adaptive use of national ICHs in the Grand Canal Cultural Belt.