Taierzhuang Ancient City

Bullet-riddled walls and a mosque at the heart of the fighting preserve traces of the fierce hand-to-hand combat of the 1938 Battle of Taierzhuang against Japanese forces.

Taierzhuang keeps a rare, well-preserved three-kilometre stretch of the old Grand Canal channel with Ming and Qing stone embankments, a World Heritage component known as the living ancient canal.

Eight architectural styles, from southern Shandong, southern Fujian and Huizhou to European, meet in this water town, celebrated as the foremost city of China's Grand Canal.

This Qing office of a third-rank brigadier general, who commanded the canal transport guards, recreates how the Ming and Qing managed waterway defence and grain shipping.

In 1604, the Ming administration opened the Jiahe route from Xiazhen through Taierzhuang toward the Yellow River west of Suqian to avoid a difficult stretch of river navigation.