The Grand Canal

The Grand Canal, also known as the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, is the world's oldest and longest canal. The canal goes from Beijing in the North to Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province in the South, flows through Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang provinces, and interconnects the five rivers; Haihe, Yellow, Huanhe, Qiangtang, and Yangtze. The Grand Canal is a great engineering project created by the ancient Chinese. It is also a precious human heritage left by the ancestors.

The Great Canal played an important role in Chinese history, transporting foods and goods from South to North China and greatly promoted the administration and defense of China as a union, strengthening economic and cultural exchange between the North and the South.

The Grand Canal illustrates that ancient China had advanced technologies of water conservancy and shipping, and gave birth to numerous famous cities and towns. Together with the Great Wall, it is reputed as one of the two marvelous projects of ancient China and became known worldwide.