when was the grand canal built
In 1566, to escape the problems caused by flooding of the Yellow River around Yutai (now on the western shore of Weishan Lake), the Nanyang New Canal was opened. [31] It is known that 121,500 soldiers and officers were needed simply to operate the 11,775 government grain barges in the mid-15th century. Grand Canyon Skywalk . He gave orders to dig the canal which started at Yangzhou (扬州). Anonymous. Grand Canal With a length of 1,500 metres and a width of 62 metres, the Grand Canal, which was built between 1668 and 1671, physically and visually prolongs the east–west axis to the walls of the Grand Parc. The northernmost portion, linking Beijing and Luoyang, was named the Yongji Channel. Construction on the Eastern Route officially began on December 27, 2002, and water was supposed to reach Tianjin by 2012. Traditionally the Shanghe region west of the canal has been prone to frequent flooding, while the Xiahe region to its east has been hit by less frequent but immensely damaging inundations caused by the failure of the Grand Canal levees. The original name was Xingfu Temple (兴福寺 [xīng fú sì]), and later was given the “Xiangji Temple” by Emperor Zhenzong. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the canal has been used primarily to transport vast amounts of bulk goods such as bricks, gravel, sand, diesel, and coal. The canal was constructed in the early nineteenth century by Scottish engineer Thomas Telford. In May 2013, the Eastern Zhejiang Canal was listed in the seventh group of Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level and was included in the Grand Canal. In order to connect the north and the south without detouring to city Luoyang, the canal should be built and expanded again. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368), it was destroyed by war and was rebuilt in 2009. [30] Even the shipwrecked Korean Choe Bu (1454–1504)—while traveling for five months throughout China in 1488—acknowledged that Hangzhou served not as a competitor but as an economic feeder into the greater Suzhou market. [23] This allowed ships to wait within a gated space while the water could be drained to appropriate levels; the Chinese also built roofed hangars over the space to add further protection for the ships. The Grand Canal itself was combined into one great waterway during the reign of the Sui Dynasty, 581 - 618 CE. And then, the main four parts of the Great Canal was established: Although several emperors were in the activity of building and enlarging the Grand Canal, it is generally believed by common folks that Emperor Suiyang was the builder. Constructed in sections from the 5th century BC onwards, it was conceived as a unified means of communication for the Empire for the first time in the 7th century AD (Sui dynasty). This move deprived Nanjing of its status as chief political center of China. In 1289, a geological survey preceded its one-year construction. [31] Each courier station was assigned a different name, all of which were popularized in travel songs of the period.[32]. The canal was started in the 6th cent. Further on, about 30 km (19 mi) north of Jining, the highest elevation of the canal (38.5 m or 126 ft above sea level) is reached at the town of Nanwang. [15] Besides being the headquarters for the government salt monopoly and the largest pre-modern industrial production center of the empire, Yangzhou was also the geographical midpoint along the north-south trade axis, and so became the major center for southern goods shipped north. -The Grand Canal Stretches over 1,100 miles from Beijing to Hangzhou and also connects two of the most important natural rivers in China: The Yellow River and the Yangtze River.-The Grand Canal was originally built over 2000 years ago, in order to easily send food from the southern farmlands to the north where the capital was located. It is generally a minimum of 100 meters wide in the congested city centers, and often two or three times this width in the neighboring countryside. Though the king of the State of Wu finally failed to conquer the State of Qi, the canal remained and paved the way of the Great Canal. The institution of the Grand Canal by the Qin dynasty and the Sui dynasty, mostly the Sui, also obviated the need for the army to become self-sufficient farmers while posted at the northern frontier, as food supplies could now easily be shipped from south to north over the pass. The Grand Canal – the big canal that runs through the heart of Venice – is deeper, at an average of 5 metres, while the Canale della Giudecca – which separates the main part of Venice from the island of Giudecca – is around 12 to 17 metres deep. [33] Because of various factors—the difficulty of crossing the Yellow River, the increased development of an alternative sea route for grain-ships, and the opening of the Tianjin-Pukou Railway and the Beijing-Hankou Railway—the canal languished and for decades the northern and southern parts remained separate. The Manchus invaded China in the mid-17th century, allowed through the northern passes by the Chinese general Wu Sangui once the Ming capital at Beijing had fallen into the hands of a rebel army. It boosts the culture in Hangzhou, leaving many historical and cultural landscapes. [17], By the year 735, it was recorded that about 149,685,400 kilograms (165,000 short tons) of grain were shipped annually along the canal. Canals as we know them were a creation of the 18th century, although as early as 1515 Canterbury had obtained an Act of Parliament to extend navigation on the River Stour. Impossible for modern ships to go through, the canal has now lost any significant economic importance it once had. The canal opened from Braunston to Weedon on 21st June 1796, and a few weeks later it was extended as far south as Blisworth, where a long tunnel was under construction. During the Yuan dynasty, a further canal on the Tonghui River connected Tongzhou with a wharf called the Houhai or "rear sea" in central Beijing. A magistrate of Jining, Shandong sent a memorandum to the throne of the Yongle Emperor protesting the current inefficient means of transporting 4,000,000 dan (428,000,000 liters) of grain a year by means of transferring it along several different rivers and canals in barge types that went from deep to shallow after the Huai River, and then transferred back onto deep barges once the shipment of grain reached the Yellow River. In Tianjin, the canal heads northwest, for a short time following the course of the Yongding, a tributary of the Hai River, before branching off toward Tongzhou on the edge of the municipality of Beijing. Its great number of feeder springs (between two and four hundred, depending on the counting method and season of the year) also led to it being called the quanhe or 'river of springs'. It includes ten city gates and over 20 stone bridges of traditional design and historic areas that have been well preserved as well as temples and pavilions. The convenience of transport also enabled rulers to lead inspection tours to southern China. However, in that year a new waterway opened that was radically different. He ordered a canal to be constructed for trading purposes, as well as a means to ship ample supplies north in case his forces should engage the northern states of Song and Lu. He achieved this by joining two of these rivers' tributaries, the Si and the Ji respectively, at their closest point, across a low watershed of the Shandong massif. 'the river of locks'. Historically, the Grand Canal was built in segments by many separated kingdoms starting some 25 centuries ago. Its west end is in Xixing Street, Binjiang District, Hangzhou City, crossing Cao'e River and Shaoxing City to its east end, the Yong River estuary in Ningbo City. Thanks for the Great Canal, the cities along the canal could have economic prosperity, urban development and cultural splendor in the history of the Chinese nation, and center governments were able to promote the extension and sublimation of the Chinese spirit. [14] This allowed the southern area to provide grain to the northern province, particularly to troops stationed there. In 1488, the shipwrecked Korean scholar Choe Bu traveled the entire length of the Grand Canal on his way from Zhejiang to Beijing (and on to Korea) and left a detailed account of his trip. This ‘Inner Canal’ runs between the Yangtze and Huai'an in Jiangsu, skirting the Shaobo, Lake Gaoyou, and Hongze lakes of central Jiangsu. During the Ancien Régime, the Grand Canal served as a venue for boating parties. The Wei River at this point is heavily polluted while drought and industrial water extraction have left it too low to be navigable. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the storage function of FuYi Warehouse has changed several times. In 1855, the Yellow River flooded and changed its course, severing the course of the canal in Shandong. Named after the Jia River whose course it followed, it ran 140 kilometers (87 mi) from Xiazhen (modern Weishan) on the shore of Shandong's Weishan Lake to Suqian in Jiangsu. The Grand Canal nominally runs between Beijing and Hangzhou over a total length of 1,794 km (1,115 mi), however, only the section from Hangzhou to Jining is currently navigable. FuYi Warehouse is the only existing ancient granary in Hangzhou. It crosses a series of lakes—Zhaoyang, Dushan, and Nanyang—which nominally form a continuous body of water. Its greatest height is reached in the mountains of Shandong, at a summit of 42 m (138 ft). Despite temporary periods of desolation and disuse, the Grand Canal furthered an indigenous and growing economic market in China's urban centers from the Sui period onwards to the present. The southern portion remains in heavy use to the present day. [23], Much of the Grand Canal south of the Yellow River was ruined for several years after 1128 when Du Chong decided to break the dykes and dams holding back the waters of the Yellow River in order to decimate the oncoming Jurchen invaders during the Jin–Song wars. Emperor SuiYang who expanded the canal also wanted to govern the southeastern areas directly without being tackled by the inconvenient transportation. 0 0. It was there all the time, Venice is built entirely on water, it is built on a lagoon. The Yilou Canal was opened in 738 AD and still exists, though not as part of the modern Grand Canal route. The Grand Canal is currently being upgraded to serve as the Eastern Route of the South-North Water Transfer Project. The water level in the Jiangnan Canal remains scarcely above sea level (the Zhenjiang ridge is 12 meters higher than that of the Yangtze River). These waterways combine the functions of irrigation and transport. Grand Canyon National Park received about 44,000 visitors when it first opened in 1919. Such a case occurred in the year 858 when an enormous flood along the Grand Canal inundated thousands of acres of farmland and killed tens of thousands of people in the North China Plain. [46], In 1848, Robert Fortune reached Hang Chow Foo by the Grand Canal in his quest for tea plants. The Great Canal suffered a lot in modern history in China because of the wars. The Grand Canal was built in the perspective of Versailles Palace by gardener Andre Lenotre. Built and maintained by the constant efforts of successive dynasties, the Grand Canal was a vital axis in the Empire’s lines of communication, particularly for the feeding of the population, the unified administration of the territory and cultural interchanges. [14] Running alongside and parallel to the canal was an imperial roadway and post offices supporting a courier system. The scholar Gu Yanwu of the early Qing dynasty (1644–1912) estimated that the previous Ming dynasty had to employ 47,004 full-time laborers recruited by the lijia corvée system in order to maintain the entire canal system. From here to Linqing, the canal is called the Lu or ‘Shandong’ Canal. Here the land lying to the west of the canal is higher than its bed while the land to the east is lower. The Grand Canal: 3rd century BC - 13th century AD: The Chinese (the greatest early builders of canals) undertake several major projects from the 3rd century BC onwards. Though one of the northernmost sections, its name derives from its position relative to Tianjin. It's shaped like a backwards letter S, and is approximately two miles long. When the canal was completed it linked the systems of the Qiantang River, the Yangtze River, the Huai River, the Yellow River, the Wei River, and the Hai River. The economic importance of the canal likely will continue. Designed by Antonio da Ponte in the late 16th century, the Rialto Bridge crosses the canal at roughly its halfway point. [47][48], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}30°15′41″N 120°13′26″E / 30.26139°N 120.22389°E / 30.26139; 120.22389, Longest canal or artificial river in the world located in China, Watercraft moving across the Grand Canal of China in, "Grand Canal" in Simplified (top) and Traditional (bottom) Chinese characters. Near the edge of Shandong at Jining there are locks to allow it to climb the foothills of Meng Shan. The Grand Canal was built in the Spring and Autumn Period (770–221 BC), completed in the Sui Dynasty (58l–6l8), prospered in the Tang and Song Dynasties (618–1279), stretched in the Yuan Dynasty (l279–l368), and dredged in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368–1911). It was formed from the amalgamation of several different canals, and at 286.3 miles (460.8 km) (281.3 miles (452.7 km) when excluding the shared line with the Oxford Canal), is by far the longest merged canal in the UK. Tongji Canal, which started from Luoyang, communicated the water transportation of the two rivers of Huang and Huai. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. Currently, ships can only travel up to Jining. [15] One of the greatest benefits of the canal system in the Tang dynasty—and subsequent dynasties—was that it reduced the cost of shipping grain that had been collected in taxes from the Yangtze River Delta to northern China. The reconstruction of the canal began in 2002, by 2007 it was partially navigable, and the renovation project finished in 2009, though the Ningbo section was not navigable until the end of 2013. However, as an important member of the “granaries of the world”, FuYi Warehouse still stands at the southernmost tip of the canal and keep its cultural connotations alive and rich. For running through a city named Han, it was also called “Canal Han” with 170 kilometers of length. [2] The new canal was to pass not Xuzhou but Suzhou, to avoid connecting with the Si River, and instead make a direct connection with the Huai River just west of Lake Hongze. As the oldest and longest canal in the world, it had been making great contributions to economic development and culture exchange between the regions along it from the earliest time to the present day. On June 22, 2014, The Grand Canal was listed as a World Heritage Site, at the 2014 Conference on World Heritage.[35]. [20] Such an unfortunate event could reduce the legitimacy of a ruling dynasty by causing others to perceive it as having lost the Mandate of Heaven; this was a good reason for dynastic authorities to maintain a smooth and efficient canal system. At that time, the ships on the Grand Canal were busy, and it was the only place where Buddhist believers could stop by and attend religious service. This southernmost section of the canal runs from Hangzhou in Zhejiang, where the canal connects with the Qiantang River, to Zhenjiang in Jiangsu, where it meets the Yangtze. A $250 million restoration project begun in 2001 has improved water quality to the point where it no longer smells and is once again capable of supporting some fauna.[34]. The Manchus established the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), and under their leadership, the Grand Canal was overseen and maintained just as in earlier times. A southerly course passes close by Xuzhou and enters Weishan Lake near Peixian. It is the Chinese rather than the British that can claim to be the early pioneers of canal building, with the Grand Canal of China in the tenth century. Its southern section, running between Hangzhou and the Yangtze, was named the Jiangnan River (the river ‘South of the Yangtze’). The reopening of the Grand Canal also benefited Suzhou over Nanjing since the former was in a better position on the main artery of the Grand Canal, and so it became Ming China's greatest economic center. At Weishan Lake, both courses enter Shandong province. The canal is 239 kilometers (149 mi) long. In the 13th century, it provided a complete inland network of more than 2,000 km of navigable man-made waterways. Basically, the original reason for building the canal is to facilitate military operations to other countries. Dynasties in 1271–1633 significantly restored and rebuilt the canal and altered its route to supply their capital. [2] Ships in Chinese canals did not have trouble reaching higher elevations after the pound lock was invented in the 10th century, during the Song dynasty (960–1279), by the government official and engineer Qiao Weiyue. In the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), the capital was established at Linan, which meant that the Eastern Zhejiang Canal became an important shipping channel. At its widest point, at the Salute/San Marco (southern) end, it is roughly 350 feet wide; the normal width is about half that. and was constructed over a 2,000-year period. It ran for 75 kilometers (47 mi) from Nanyang (now Nanyang Town, located in the center of Weishan Lake) to the small settlement of Liucheng (in the vicinity of modern Gaolou Village, Weishan County, Shandong) north of Xuzhou City. In its finished state, the Grand Canal stretches 1,104 miles (1,776 kilometers) and runs north to south roughly parallel to the east coast of China. From south to north these are the Jiangnan Canal, the Inner Canal, the Middle Canal, the Lu Canal, the South Canal, the North Canal, and the Tonghui River. Although the Tang dynasty (618–907) capital at Chang'an was the most thriving metropolis of China in its day, it was the city of Yangzhou—in proximity to the Grand Canal—that was the economic hub of the Tang era. In 1345, Arab traveler Ibn Battuta traveled China and journeyed through the Abe Hayat river (Grand Canal) up to the capital Khanbalik (Beijing). Although Venice is composed of islands and canals, the Grand Canal is the only really large one. About 50 km (31 mi) further north, passing close by Dongping Lake, the canal reaches the Yellow River. Most importantly, In 2002, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was included in one of the “South-to-North Water Transfer” three-line projects and became an important link and channel for the East Route of China’s South-to-North Water Transfer Project. By 1759 he reported that 3 km (1.9 mi) in the Bog of Allen and 13 km (8.1 mi) of canal from the River Liffey near Sallins towards Dublin were complete. The canal even made a distinct impression on some of China's early European visitors. Early canal construction took place in the Shanyin old canal in Shaoxing City, in the Spring and Autumn period (approximately 771 to 476 BC). In the third century AD, an official named He Xun supervised the construction of the Xixing Canal, establishing the complete Eastern Zhejiang Canal. The Hangzhou Canal is the southernmost part of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and has a total length of 39 kilometers. The fifth section of the canal extends for a distance of 524 kilometers (326 mi) from Linqing to Tianjin along the course of the canalized Wei River. Yongji Canal started from the north of the Yellow River and went directly to Beijing. The idea of connecting Dublin to the Shannon was proposed as early as 1715, and in 1757 the Irish Parliament granted Thomas Omer £20,000 to start construction of a canal. Even today, the Grand Canal has not fully recovered from this disaster. The Great Canal is more than 10 times the Suez Canal and 22 times the Panama Canal with its total length of 1797 kilometers. [1] 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. This ‘Middle Canal’ section runs from Huai'an to Weishan Lake, passing through Luoma Lake and following more than one course, the result of the impact of centuries of Yellow River flooding. The Shanyang Canal originally opened onto the Yangtze a short distance south of Yangzhou. Nowadays, the scenery in XiangJi Temple attracts thousands of tourists from different places every month. This led to a series … Fortunately, the Chinese government renovated the canal and the various functions, like shipping, irrigation, flood control, and drainage have been explored again. Grand Canal Sui Dynasty China. This canal stretched from the Yangtze River to the Huai River. The Grand Union Canal in its current form came into being on 1 January 1929, and was further extended in 1932. By 1763 he had completed 3 locks and 6 bridges towards Dublin and was concentrating on establishing a water supply from the Morell River near Sallins. The Grand Canal was built in 468 BC, and it went through renovations and enlargements three times in history, which were in the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC-476 BC), the Sui Dynasty (581-618) and the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) respectively. [43], In the late 1200s, Marco Polo traveled extensively through China and his trips included time on the Grand Canal, then a major artery for shipping silk, porcelain, and wine.[44]. The Grand Canal, known to the Chinese as the Jing–Hang Grand Canal (Chinese: 京杭大運河; pinyin: Jīng-Háng Dà Yùnhé; lit. Don’t Be, 10 Foods or Dishes You Should Try if You Visit Colombia, Instagram Is Ruining What It Means to Travel, First Iceland… and then The Shock of the Ordinary. Grand Canal history. reservoir lakes at the very summit, at a small town called Nanwang, On an Ancient Canal, Grunge Gives Way to Grandeur, "Suzhou Grand Canal – Golden Waterway in China", The missionaries traveled along The Grand Canal – MildChina.com, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-british-tea-heist-9866709/, The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China, Hangzhou Section of The Grand Canal – EN.GOTOHZ.COM, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition, Transport by province or autonomous region, Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grand_Canal_(China)&oldid=1014001675, Articles containing Chinese-language text, Articles containing traditional Chinese-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2019, Articles containing simplified Chinese-language text, All Wikipedia articles needing clarification, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from January 2010, Articles with obsolete information from March 2012, All Wikipedia articles in need of updating, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Wikipedia articles with multiple identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of, This page was last edited on 24 March 2021, at 16:52. 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