The Grand Canal

What are China’s greatest achievements? Surely, one of the first to come to mind is the Great Wall. But did you know that the Chinese also built the longest canal in the world? Its length of 1,104 miles easily compares with a route linking New York and Florida. This canal connects six provinces and five river systems, and its ends are marked by the city of Beijing in the north and the city of Hangzhou in the south. For this reason, the Grand Canal is officially called the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

- Patrick Wertmann

AND SO IT BEGINS

But why would you build such an enormous canal? To find out, we must travel back to the year 486 B.C.. It was then that the leader of the State of Wu, which was located near present-day Suzhou, realized he had to find new ways of transporting goods to the northern areas of China. There were roads, but they were often in need of repair. So, he opted for a longer lasting alternative—a canal. It would be a manmade channel, using already existing waterways, to link the Yangzi and Huai rivers. It was this canal that laid the foundation for the future, longer Grand Canal.