On 4th June, 2015, when it was after one-year construction, the completion ceremony of “The Water Ecology Capacity Building Demonstration Project –a Case Study on the World Heritage site of Tongli Tuisi Garden” was held at the square of Tuisi Garden. It was conducted by Dr. LI Xin, chief planner of the project and Vice Secretary-General of WHITRAP. Representatives from the partners also attended the ceremony and made speeches, who were Kishore RAO (Director of UNESCO World Heritage Centre), HUANG Haidi (Secretary-General of SEE Conservation Association Shanghai Centre), XUE Jianguo (Secretary of the Party Committee of New SMG of Wujiang District), CHEN Jianzhong (Director of Tongli Old Town Protection and Management Committee), YU Jiandong (Fellow of See Conservation Association), XUE Zhijian (Secretary-General of the World Heritage and Ancient Architecture Protection Research Institute in Suzhou), sponsor Ms. YE Jinghua (Director of Foreign Affairs in Akzo Nobel), and LING Gangqiang (Vice Director of Lili Old Town Protection and Development Management Committee).
Water is the spirit of the World Heritage Site, Tuisi Garden. However, the water body of Tuisi Garden kept deteriorating because of the disconnection between the internal water and the external water. In May of last year, WHITRAP cooperated with SEE Conservation Association and Tongli Old Town Protection and Management Committee, started the restoration project of water ecology in Tuisi Garden. It was devoted to use the idea of ecological restoration to improve the water ecological environment. After one-year running, “The Water EcologyCapacity Building Demonstration Project –a Case Study on the World Heritage site of Tongli Tuisi Garden” had a preliminary success that perfect environment of the food chain in Tuisi Garden water ecological system was formed and, by self-purification of the water body, self-balance can be maintained without adding chemical agents. It has become the example project of ecological water system in Water Towns in Yangtze River Delta.