The Grand Canal: China’s 1,800-Kilometre Waterway, Seen From Hangzhou and Suzhou

The Grand Canal runs for about 1,800 kilometres from Beijing to Hangzhou (published figures range from 1,776 to 1,794). It crosses four provinces and two municipalities and joins five river systems: the Hai, the Yellow River, the Huai, the Yangtze and the Qiantang. China’s great rivers flow from west to east. The canal was the one route that ran from south to north, and for more than a thousand years it carried the grain of the Yangtze delta to the capital.

UNESCO placed it on the World Heritage List in 2014, at its session in Doha, as a cultural property made up of sections of waterway and the locks, bridges, granaries and towns along them.

Twenty-five centuries of digging

The oldest part dates from the fifth century BC. In 486 BC the state of Wu began the Han Canal, from south of Yangzhou to north of Huai’an, to move its troops between the Yangtze and the Huai.

The separate canals became a single system under the Sui dynasty. Between 604 and 609 Emperor Yang had them linked and extended, so that boats could travel from the Hangzhou region to the north. Under the Yuan dynasty, which made Beijing its capital, a more direct line was cut across Shandong in the 1280s. It shortened the journey by about 700 kilometres.

The canal had to climb, over a summit in the mountains of Shandong. Chinese engineers solved the problem of levels early: the pound lock, with two gates enclosing a chamber, is credited to the official Qiao Weiyue in 984.

The southern canal today

Only the southern part of the canal, from Hangzhou as far as Liangshan county in Shandong, is still navigable. Here the canal remains a working route, and strings of barges pass through the cities of Zhejiang and Jiangsu.

Hangzhou

The canal ends in the north of Hangzhou. Its landmark is the Gongchen Bridge, a high stone bridge of three arches that marks the traditional terminus. The streets and warehouses beside it have been restored as a canal quarter with museums. Water buses have run along the canal from the centre of the city; check the current service.

Suzhou

At Suzhou the canal passes along the edge of the old city. The Pan Gate, at the south-west corner of the walls, has a water gate through which boats entered the city’s own canals. South of the city the Baodai Bridge, the Precious Belt Bridge, carries the old towpath on a long line of low stone arches beside the main channel.

For travellers

The canal is best seen in pieces. In Hangzhou, an hour at the Gongchen Bridge fits easily with a day on West Lake. In Suzhou, the Pan Gate can be joined to a visit to the classical gardens. Between the two cities lies the water town of Wuzhen, which stands on the canal and holds a theatre festival each October. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons.