Beijing's axis joins history to the future

"The inspiration for my short video this year came about as serendipity. When I was studying a map of the Central Axis, I suddenly felt that the layout of the major sites looked a lot like the game we'd played in our childhoods," Li says.

She then designed a renewed version of hopscotch that places the heritage sites in accordance with their actual locations. Players can jump from the Yongding Gate at the southern end of the axis to the Drum and Bell Towers in the north.

For two weekends, Li brought a printed version of her game to these sites, and filmed herself playing it and people's reactions. The game became popular among children and the elderly.

Sometimes, the children were seen jumping while reading the names of the sites out loud, as their parents filmed them.

The Beijing native works in a healthcare company that designs jogging routes that often pass through these sites. Part of her job is to document the group runs, which allows her to collect lots of video footage.

Since first joining the contest in 2021, she says that she has been increasingly eager to learn more about the Central Axis by reading and researching, visiting the sites again and again, and discovering new angles to present Beijing's history and culture.

"When I saw my video at the award ceremony, I thought it's kind of cool that I've been doing this for three years. Even though it's nothing grand, it's quite rare that I could persist in doing anything for three years in a row," Li says.