He organized a quiz for the other participants to guess the meanings of phrases from the Yangzhou dialect and explain their cultural connotations.
Duan points out that Yangzhou was not only an important hub on the Grand Canal but also connected to the Yangtze River basin. Goods traveling along the Yangtze River could be shipped through Yangzhou to northern China, while the salt produced in Yangzhou could be shipped to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
The history of Yangzhou, a city with a glorious past, reminded Ma of Istanbul, a city at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, which also enjoyed past glory.
He speaks of the Turkish word huzun, which Nobel laureate author Orhan Pamuk uses in his autobiography, Istanbul: Memories and the City, to encapsulate the collective melancholy experienced by the city's inhabitants following the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
"Though I'm walking through today's Yangzhou, I'm imagining what it used to be like," Ma says, adding that at that moment, he experienced a feeling of huzun of his own.
Discussions such as these provided the audience with insight into how the Grand Canal has shaped Yangzhou's past and present.
"Even though the show focuses on the Grand Canal, it really digs deep into exploring and understanding each city along the way.
