The Grand Canal is the world’s longest man-made waterway, being 1,800 kilometers long. The canal connects the present cities of Beijing in the north and Hangzhou in the south, which served as dynastic capitals in the past, and contains 24 locks and 60 bridges. Since most of China’s major rivers flow from west to east, the fact that the Grand Canal runs north and south provides it as an important connector between the Yangtze River valley and the Yellow River valley, and other minor river systems.
The series of waterways in eastern China is not only very long, but also very old, which makes the Grand Canal a masterpiece of both the ancient and the new. The oldest section, that between the Yangtze River and the Huang He, was constructed during the 4th and 5th centuries B.C.
The building of the canal began in 486 B.C. during the Zhou Dynasty. It was extended during the Qi Dynastry, and later by Emporor Yangdi of the Sui Dynasty during six years of furious construction from 605-610 A.D. The shifting of China’s “breadbasket” from the wheat and millet producing regions of the north to the rice fields of the south prompted Sui Dynasty emperors in the 6th century to construct the canal linking this productive southern region to the northern capitals. Beginning in 584, existing portions of the canal, dating as far back as the Zhou dynasty, were linked together into a unified system that stretched some 1800 kilometres.
After leaving Hangzhou the canal passes around the eastern border of Lake Tai, through the major cities of Jiaxing, Suzhou, Wuxi, and Changzhou before reaching Zhenjiang.
Starting in Beijing, it passes through Tianjin and the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang to the city of Hangzhou, linking the Yellow River and Yangtze River.
The famous Pound Lock, used all around the world, was actually created during the Song Dynasty for use with this Canal, as a means of making sure that the water level could be raised and lowered.
China’s Grand Canal was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2014.
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