Grand Canal

Marking the southern end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, Gongchen Bridge is a three-arch stone span with slender piers beside a historic canal landing.

Laid out under Bai Juyi in the Tang dynasty, the seven-li Shantang Street runs beside its canal, a classic Jiangnan water town of homes lining the stream.

Sanwan preserves a Ming dynasty hydraulic idea of three bends doing the work of one dam, and hosts the China Grand Canal Museum.

Huai'an keeps one of the canal's best-preserved Ming locks, near the seat of the grain transport governor where southern boats met northern horses.

A UNESCO World Heritage engineering landmark that diverted river waters north and south to sustain canal transport.

Rising where the canal ends in the north, Randeng Pagoda guided grain barges into Tongzhou for a millennium, its silhouette long celebrated in verse.

Part of Grand Canal's history: Building of Eastern Luoyang. Second Sui emperor, Yangdi, who built the eastern capital at Luoyang and the Grand Canal, failed in three wars against Goguryeo, and was strangled in a mutiny at Jiangdu

Part of Grand Canal's history: Yuan Grand Canal Integration. Yuan astronomer and hydraulic engineer who designed the instruments and observations behind the Shoushi calendar and cut the Tonghui canal into the capital Dadu

Building of Eastern Luoyang

Emperor Yang built the eastern capital at Luoyang with palaces, wards, markets, and canals linking the Sui realm north and south.

In 605 CE, Emperor Yang ordered the Tongji Canal, linking Luoyang with the Huai River waterway.

In 825, Suzhou prefect Bai Juyi organized excavation of the Shantang River from Changmen to Tiger Hill and built a riverside road to improve transport.

From 1292 to 1293, Guo Shoujing directed the Baifu-spring diversion and Tonghui River works, allowing grain boats to sail from Tongzhou into Dadu's Jishuitan.

Yuan Grand Canal Integration

Straightening the direct waterway from Dadu to Hangzhou, formalizing the enduring Jing-Hang Grand Canal.

In 1411, Song Li adopted Bai Ying's plan to divert the Wen River and began the Daicun Dam, Xiaowen channel, and Nanwang water-division system, a program continued over subsequent years.

The Canal and the Silk Roads

On 22 June 2014 the 38th session of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, in Doha, inscribed the Grand Canal of China and the Silk Roads: Routes Network of the Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor on the World Heritage List.

In 2014, the Grand Canal serial property was inscribed for its long-lived hydraulic works, grain-transport system, and role in imperial communications.

Zhenjiang vinegar appears in the Suiyuan Shidan, and its brewing craft is in the 1st batch of the national intangible heritage list.