In Lanzhou, Gansu Province, boarding a cruise ship from the Yanchangbao Port in the city and following the Yellow River, it takes more than two hours to reach the Shichuan Xiaoxia Port. This is the Shuiyun Shichuan Pear Blossom Appreciation Route that is specially opened in Lanzhou City every April. Stepping out of the dock and standing on the banks of the Yellow River, one can't see the edge of the pear orchard at a glance. The ancient pear trees are of various shapes and sizes, with layers of pear blossoms covering the branches, and red and bright peach blossoms dotted among them like stars. It is beautiful and attracts a large number of tourists to come and enjoy the spring. Shichuan Town in Gaolan County is located 20 kilometers northeast of Lanzhou. The mother river turns northward here, forming a beautiful valley basin. Since the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, our ancestors began planting pear trees here, leaving behind a total area of 12000 acres of pear orchards, with the core area reaching nearly 4000 acres, forming a unique agricultural cultural heritage. The pear orchard here highlights the character 'ancient'. There are 9423 ancient pear trees in Shichuan Town that are over a hundred years old, including more than 2000 trees that are 300 years old. It is known as the "world's first ancient pear garden". In recent years, Gaolan County has re located and tagged every ancient pear tree with GPS coordinates, forming a digital file with one file for each tree, and issued a QR code "ID card" for the ancient pear trees. Lanzhou City has also introduced the Shichuan Ancient Pear Tree Protection Regulations, promoting the legalization of the protection of ancient pear orchards. This ancient pear orchard mainly cultivates two varieties, the winter fruit pear that blooms first and leaves later, and the soft fruit pear that blooms and leaves simultaneously. ”Wei Shengheng, a village official from Shangcheng Village in Shichuan Town, told reporters that although the ancient pear tree is old, the pears it produces are still sweet and delicious, which is inseparable from the local people's protective skills passed down from generation to generation. 60 year old Wei Yongshang is stepping on a 7-meter-tall "heavenly handle style" cloud ladder and waving a 1-meter-long thin wooden stick to artificially pollinate ancient pear trees. This is a purely handmade skill that needs to be completed during the short blooming period of pear blossoms. The pollen was collected from modern pear trees that have been replanted. After this process, the winter fruit pear produced has thin skin, fine flesh, and sufficient moisture, and can also be sold at a good price in the market. Last year, more than 20 pear trees in Lao Wei's family produced over 10000 kilograms of soft and winter fruit pears, bringing in more than 60000 yuan in income. Relying on the ancient pear orchard in Shichuan, Gaolan County has built tourist check-in spots such as "Lihua Creek" and "Taoyuan Street", established more than 100 vacation pear orchards, cultivated more than 20 fruit cooperatives, continuously developed camping sites and boutique homestays in the wild area, promoted the integration of agriculture, culture and tourism, and increased the average annual income of households by more than 13000 yuan. This year's pear blossom season, Gaolan County has integrated the county's cultural and tourism resources, launched 3 boutique tourism routes and 16 characteristic cultural and tourism activities, which will last from April 1st to May 10th. Among them, the "One Village, One Product" mass cultural boutique exhibition, Lanzhou Guzi special exhibition and other literary and artistic activities were staged in succession, allowing tourists to immerse themselves in the charm of local culture. The performance of Lanzhou Guzi, a representative project of Gaolan County's national intangible cultural heritage, attracted many tourists on the square next to the pear orchard, saying 'Thousands of pear trees bloom into new flowers, and the breeze is gentle and smooth...'. While maintaining the original melody, we are trying to use methods such as adding new words and singing in Mandarin to inherit the Lanzhou Guzi through innovation, "Sun Lingli, deputy director of Gaolan County Cultural Center, told reporters. The Pear Blossom Festival also provides a platform for exhibition and exchange of the inheritance of Lanzhou Guzi. This year's pear blossom season, Gaolan County also welcomed a special guest - the consulting experts of the Global Important Agricultural Cultural Heritage Scientific Advisory Group of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. They will conduct an on-site evaluation of the Shichuan Ancient Pear Orchard system's application for the World Important Agricultural Cultural Heritage project. As early as 2013, Shichuan Ancient Pear Garden was named "China's Important Agricultural Cultural Heritage" by the former Ministry of Agriculture. This on-site inspection and evaluation also means that the application of Shichuan Ancient Pear Garden for World Agricultural Cultural Heritage has entered a critical stage. There are nearly ten thousand ancient pear trees over a hundred years old in Shichuan Ancient Pear Garden, and its unique elevated cloud canopy cultivation techniques and terraced ecological system along the Yellow River constitute a rare agricultural cultural heritage sample in northwest China. ”The head of the Propaganda Department of Gaolan County Committee introduced that the county will further coordinate the inheritance of traditional skills and the application of modern technology, promote the deep integration of ecological agriculture and cultural tourism industry, and revitalize the millennium agricultural wisdom. (New Society)