The first section has been manually reformatted for Notion from the original MS Word Doc provided, but was proofread and polished in 2016.

The Grand Canal of China is the earliest and longest of its kind across the world. It comprises the Sui-Tang, Beijing-Hangzhou and East Zhejiang Canals. It extends 2,700 km long, and has a history of over 2,400 years. It not only connected five major water systems of north and south China, but also provided a link with the overland Silk Road in the west and the Maritime Silk Road in the east and playing a vital role in sea and land transportation.

Thousand-year-old Canal

Qimu Towers

Songshan

Henan Province

This is a building of the Han Dynasty, standing at the foot of Songshan, a mountain in Henan Province. It is usually locked, and only archeologists are allowed inside. In the beginning, there were two stone gate towers built in the reign of Han Emperor Wudi in honor of the legendary Yu the Great. The carvings on them relate how the latter combated floods at the foot of Songshan. These have been confirmed as the earliest cultural relics recording this story. Legend has it that it is from this spot that Yu started his struggle to stem the floods. Later, he moved southeastward and reached Shaoxing of Zhejiang Province. This was a flood-prone region at the time. He worked there for many years and died at the task. In honor of this great man, local residents built the Yu Mausoleum.

Yu the Great battled floods along a line surprisingly consistent with the route taken by the Grand Canal. In Huai’an, there is an old water courier pass called Gumokou, located at a narrow part of an ancient channel. A humble stone tablet there explains its unusual historical role. The earliest section of the Grand Canal was established here at the northernmost end of Hangou. Prior to the late Spring and Autumn Period (770-221 BC), no natural river waterway flowed between the Huaihe and Yangtze river valleys that both ran from west to east.Ships from the south had to make a detour by entering the Yellow Sea via the Yangtze River, and then turning into the Huaihe to reach Huaiyin City and then on to Shandong Province via the Sishui River. Such a roundabout route wasted time and exposed the fragile ships to storms at sea.

At a time when the State of Wu enjoyed much power in Fifth Century BC, its ruler, King Fuchai, decided to attack the State of Qi lying north of the Yangtze and Huaihe. To achieve this, he exploited available lakes to dig a canal to connect the two rivers. The 170-km section extends from Yangzhou to Huai’an, becoming known as the Hangou Canal.It is the earliest part of the Grand Canal. The troops of Wu were able to use this route to attack and conquer the States of Qi and Chu, partly fulfilling King Fuchai’s dreams.

While Wu was engaged in conquest in the north, its southern neighbor, State of Yue, also began to dig a canal in an attempt to compete. The Yue capital was Shaoxing, in today’s Zhejiang Province. Some 2,500 years ago, King Goujian of Yue dug a canal involving an old waterway in Shanyin, connecting east and west. This not only greatly reduced flooding but also contributed to local development.

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Data below has not been manually reformatted from MS Word Doc provided for Notion, but was proofread and polished in 2016.**

Ancient Boat Trackers’ Road

Shaoxing

This canal, dug to help improve local people’s livelihood, forms the southern end of the Grand Canal, and laid a foundation for the eventual digging of the East Zhejiang Canal from Shaoxing to Ningbo, a distance of 339 km. It starts from Hangzhou, and passing through Shaoxing and Ningbo, where it empties into the sea at Yongjiang. During the Western Jin Dynasty (265-316）, a canal connecting the Qiantang River in the west and the East China Sea also took shape. This raises a question: why did China’s canals first appear in the areas south of the Yangtze River? Firstly, it is dotted with lakes, a favorable natural condition for digging canal; secondly, both Wu and Yue were economically developed states, with advanced knowledge of hydrology. Moreover, Fuchai and Goujian were both ambitious kings keen to expand their territory. This provided the impetus for the digging of a canal. The two states fought for many years, before Fuchai was defeated and committed suicide. The canals he and Goujian ordered to be dug are considered the historical starting point for the eventual appearance of the Grand Canal. Some 1,000 years later, after much turmoil, China became a unified country once again during the Sui Dynasty (581-618), and the area south of the Yangtze River became increasingly important to the national economy. Regional canals were unable to satisfy the growing need of social development and the movement of goods and people. Rivers in the south and north desperately needed to be connected up. In Xingyang, Henan Province, the Honggou Canal is not far from the boundary between the upper and lower reaches of the Yellow River. It witnessed the final hours of a four-year war between the states of Chu and Han over 2,000 years ago.

Xiang Yu, Overlord of Western Chu, and Liu Bang, Prince of Han, once made a pact to divide the country using the Honggou Canal as the boundary. Although a distant part of history, with its initial section now dried up, the ancient canal marking the Chu-Han boundary still exists in the game of Chinese chess. Over 2,000 years ago, it helped divert the flow of the Yellow River to run eastward along an artificial channel directly leading to Huai’an. The waterway connecting the Huaihe and Yellow River valleys was known as the Tongji Canal in the Sui Dynasty.

In 604, Yang Guang ascended the throne at the age of 35. To Emperor Yang, it was clear that, in order to strengthen central government power and consolidate national unity, he had to have better control of the affluent area south of the Yangtze River and put the abundant resources of the region to good use.

The year after he became Emperor, Yang Guang decided on two big projects, despite of strong opposition. Firstly, he would move the capital from Chang’an to Luoyang; secondly, he would oversee the digging of the Tongji Canal between Luoyang and Huai’an and the Yongji Canal between Luoyang and Zhuojun to connect the Yellow and Yangtze rivers. He immediately ordered mobilization of one million laborers to dig the 650-km Tongji Canal in only half-a-year, filling in existing gaps and using natural waterways. However, the canal had to be both wide and deep enough to accommodate the large ships used by the emperor, and the schedule was tight. Construction started in March and finished in August, creating a miracle in canal excavation, but at a huge cost. Nearly half the workforce died from overwork and disease. Ox carts full of corpses shuttled between Chen’gao and Heyang in an endless stream. The Tongji Canal remained in use until the Yuan Dynasty appeared 720 years later.

Ancient Tongji Canal

Zhengzhou