The history of excavation of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal

1. What is the history of excavation of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal?

The first phase of canal excavation began in the Spring and Autumn Period.

In 494 BC, King Wu Fucha defeated the Yue Kingdom and wanted to march north to the Central Plains to compete with Qi for hegemony. However, the biggest problem in traveling long distances is the transportation of military rations and weapons. If we rely on land transportation, it will not only cost a lot but also the roads are not smooth, making it difficult to achieve the goal.

But one advantage Wu had was its boatmen and advanced river-driving, shipbuilding, and shipping technologies. They took advantage of the natural conditions of dense lakes between the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers, measured on-site, excavated locally, and connected several lakes. In 486 BC, King Wu Fucha began to dig Hangou in Yangzhou, connecting the Yangtze River and Huaihe River systems.

During the Warring States Period, large ditches and chasms were dug successively (the Yellow River was diverted from the north to Yuanyang County, Henan Province, to the south, and poured into Putianze east of present-day Zhengzhou City) and the Chasm Valley, thus connecting the Yangtze River, Huaihe River, The rivers and rivers are connected. The second phase of the canal mainly refers to the canal system of the Sui Dynasty.

With Luoyang, the eastern capital, as the center, the Tongji Canal was excavated in the first year of Daye (AD 605) to directly connect the Yellow River and Huaihe River, and the Hangou and Jiangnan Canal were renovated. In the third year of Daye (607 AD), the Yongji Canal was excavated to connect Zhuo County in the north. Together with the Guangtong Canal excavated in 584 AD, a multi-branch canal system was formed.

There is also an interesting story about Emperor Chang of the Sui Dynasty digging the canal from the Beijing-Huaihe section to the south of the Yangtze River: It is said that Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty once dreamed of a very beautiful flower at night, but he did not know What is the name of this flower and where does it grow? After waking up, Emperor Sui Yang ordered people to draw pictures of the flowers in his dream, and issued an imperial list to find people who knew this flower.

Wang Shichong, who had seen Qionghua in Yangzhou, happened to be in the capital at that time. When he saw this imperial list, he unveiled it and entered the palace. He told Emperor Yang of Sui that the flower painted on the picture was called Qionghua and it grew in Yangzhou. After hearing this, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty wanted to see it, so he opened a canal, built a dragon boat, and went to Yangzhou with his queen and concubines to see the Qionghua.

The North-South Grand Canal built in the Sui Dynasty, centered on Luoyang, connected to Zhuojun in the north, Yuhang in the south, and Chang'an in the west. It connected the five major water systems of Qiantang River, Yangtze River, Huaihe River, Yellow River, and Haihe River. A water transportation network extending in all directions was formed. This is a world-famous water conservancy project.

It has a total length of 1,794 kilometers, a water surface width of more than 50 meters, and a narrowest point of 30 meters. After the canal was built, Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty led a 200-mile (1 mile = 500 meters) fleet consisting of thousands of ships, departing from Luoyang and heading to Yangzhou for sightseeing.

According to historical records, the dragon boat Yang Guang rode was nearly 15 meters high, 16.5 meters wide and 66 meters long.

It is not difficult to see the scale and navigation capacity of the Grand Canal. The construction of the North-South Grand Canal in the Sui Dynasty was a success at that time and will benefit the future.

Since the Grand Canal was built, it has become the main artery of transportation between the north and the south of our country. In the canal, "business travelers come and go, and there are endless boats." Pi Rixiu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, said in "Inscriptions on the Bianhe River": "Nowadays, outside the Jiuhe River, there is Qibian (i.e. canal), which connects the fishermen of Zhuojun in the north and transports the river to the capital in the south. This is beneficial. "Blessed!" On both sides of the canal, commercial cities are becoming increasingly prosperous.

Since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, places along both sides of the canal such as Hangzhou, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Huai'an, Huaiyin, Kaifeng and other places have gradually become emerging commercial cities. These cities have survived through the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Become a prosperous metropolis. The third phase of the canal mainly refers to the Yuan, Ming and Qing phases.

The key sections excavated in the Yuan Dynasty were the section from Sishui to Weihe and the section from Dadu to Tongzhou in Shandong. The purpose was to avoid detouring to Luoyang and cut corners to straighten them. This shortened the voyage by more than 900 kilometers compared with the Sui Dynasty Canal. , which is the predecessor of today's Beijing-Hangzhou Canal. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the foundation of the Yuan Canal was maintained. In the Ming Dynasty, the river section in Shandong that had been silted up by the end of the Yuan Dynasty was dredged again.

From the middle of the Ming Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty, between Xia Town (now Weishan County) in Weishan Lake, Shandong and Qingjiangpu (now Huaiyin), Tongji Xinhe and Zhonghe separated the Yellow River Waiting for the canal project, and digging a canal between the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River, and carrying out the lake-canal separation project. Excavation of the Grand Canal has to go through a complex geographical environment, and a series of scientific and technical problems need to be solved from design, construction to management.

Engineering involves many aspects of scientific and technological knowledge such as measurement, calculation, machinery, and fluid mechanics. The completion of this project reflects the ingenuity and creative spirit of the working people in ancient my country.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is a great project created by the working people in ancient my country. It is a living and flowing important human heritage. It has a great impact on the economic and cultural development and exchanges between the north and south of China, especially along the line. The development of regional industrial and agricultural economy and the rise of towns played a huge role. 2. The history of the construction of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal

In addition to the Ling Canal, there is another famous canal in my country that plays an important role in the history of inland shipping in the world, which is the longest Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in the world.

This canal is connected to the Haihe River in the north and the Qiantang River in the south, connecting the five major water systems of the Haihe River, Yellow River, Huaihe River, Yangtze River and Qiantang River into a unified water transportation network. This is a miracle that the working people of ancient my country transformed nature.

Most of my country’s major rivers flow horizontally from west to east. In the absence of modern land transportation, it was necessary to open up a waterway transportation running from north to south.

Especially after the division of the Northern and Southern Dynasties ended and the Sui Dynasty achieved national unification, it became even more necessary. At that time, the political and military center of the Sui Dynasty was in the north, while the economy of the Jianghuai region in the south had developed greatly.

A large part of the materials needed by northern cities, especially food, depend on the Jianghuai region. How to continuously transport this food to the northern region is a major problem that must be solved before the ruling class.

A large amount of materials need to be transported from the Jianghuai River to Chang'an, or even to the military towns on the northern border. What is the best method of transportation? At that time, the only land transportation was mules, horses, carts and people carrying people on their shoulders. The transportation speed was slow, the transportation volume was small, the cost and consumption were very high, and it could not meet the needs of the ruling class. This task can only be accomplished using waterway transportation.

Therefore, the construction of the canal was a need of the times and a historical necessity at that time. The tyrant Yang Guang, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, was extravagant, lustful and fond of fun. This cannot be regarded as the main reason. However, the arduous project of digging the canal turned out to be a disaster for the working people.

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty forced millions of migrant workers to build the canal, seriously damaging production and causing thousands of migrant workers to die tragically on the canal construction site. "The Story of Kaihe" written by the late Tang Dynasty scholar Han Xi (Wò Wo) describes the tragic life of migrant workers building rivers.

The article writes that Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty sent a cruel official, Ma Shumou, to be in charge of repairing the river, forcing all men over the age of 15 to serve, and 3.6 million people were conscripted. At the same time, one person from five families, old, young, or female, was selected to be responsible for providing food and cooking for the migrant workers.

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty also sent 50,000 burly men, each holding a torture stick, as supervisors to supervise the labor of migrant workers. Because the labor burden was heavy, the supervisors were too eager to supervise the work and often beat them with sticks. As a result, in less than a year, the number of 3.6 million migrant workers died reached 2.5 million.

In the history of our country, the excavation project of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal mainly went through three periods: the first period was the Spring and Autumn Period of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. King Fucha of the Wu Kingdom in the southeast, in order to expand his power northward in order to strive for hegemony in the Central Plains, diverted the Yangtze River water through Guazhou (today's southern part of Hanjiang County, Jiangsu Province) north into the Huaihe River in 486 BC.

This canal connecting the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River, from Guazhou to Mokou (near today's Huai'an), was called Hangou at the time and was about 150 kilometers long. This canal is the origin of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the earliest section of the Grand Canal.

Later, the Qin, Han, Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties extended the river channels one after another. The second period is the Sui Dynasty.

From the end of the sixth century to the beginning of the seventh century AD, the middle section of the Grand Canal was generally widened and straightened on the basis of Hangou, which was named Shanyangdu. South of the Yangtze River, the Jiangnan Canal, the southern section of the Grand Canal, was completed.

In fact, the prototype of the Jiangnan Canal already exists and has been used for water transportation for a long time. "Cao" means transporting rice to a centralized location by waterway.

Water transportation is an important economic system in the history of our country. In today's terms, it is a kind of professional transportation that uses waterways (rivers or seaways) to transport grains (mainly public grains). my country's feudal dynasty levied land rent and land tax from farmers, and for a long time adopted the method of collecting land in kind.

Most of these dynasties had their capitals in cities in the northwest and north, and the food produced in nearby areas could not meet the needs of the capital. Therefore, transporting grain collected from other regions to the capital became an important political measure and was valued by feudal rulers.

Under this circumstance, water transportation has formed a relatively complete system in the history of our country, and has a corresponding management system. The boats used for canal transport are called cauldrons.

The grain and rice carried by canal boats are called caoliang and caomi. The troops and migrant workers who drove the canal boats were called Caojun, Caoding and Caofu.

Many dynasties had officials in charge of water transportation. As far back as the Qin and Han dynasties, my country's history books already have records about water transport. By the Sui Dynasty, water transport had further developed.

In 605 AD, Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty ordered the construction of a grand canal running from north to south. At this time, the main work was to dig Tongji Canal and Yongji Canal.

The Tongji Canal project on the south bank of the Yellow River is to divert the water from the Yellow River near Luoyang, to the southeast, and to enter the Bianshui River (now blocked), connecting the water transportation of the two major rivers of the Yellow River and the Huaihe River. Tongji Canal, also called Yuhe, is the beginning of the waterway communication between the Yellow River, Bianshui River and Huaihe River.

The capital of the Sui Dynasty was Chang'an, so the main water transportation route at that time was: along the Jiangnan Canal to Jingkou (today's Zhenjiang) to cross the Yangtze River, then go north along Shanyangdu, then turn into the Tongji Canal, and go up the Yellow River , Weihe River and up, finally arriving at Chang'an. The Yongji Canal dug to the north of the Yellow River was a canal that used Qinshui, Qishui, Weihe and other rivers as water sources to divert water for navigation. It used Lugou (Yongding River) in the northwest of Tianjin to reach Zhuojun (now Beijing).

Let’s introduce in detail several important projects of the Sui Dynasty in building the Grand Canal: First, the construction of the Guangtong Canal leading to the Yellow River in the east. An important canal started in the Sui Dynasty was the Guangtong Canal, which connected the Yellow River from Chang'an to the east.

In the early Sui Dynasty, Chang'an was the capital. From Chang'an east to the Yellow River, there were two waterways in the Western Han Dynasty, one was the natural river Wei River, and the other was the artificial river canal built in the Han Dynasty.

The water in the Wei River is shallow, the sand is deep, and the river is curved, making it difficult to navigate. Since the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty was moved to Luoyang, the canal fell into disrepair and had long since been abandoned.

The Sui Dynasty had no choice but to dig new canals from scratch. In the first year of Kaihuang (AD 581), Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty appointed General Guo Yan as the Superintendent of Cao Canal Development, responsible for improving water transportation between Chang'an and the Yellow River.

However, the completed Fumin Canal was still unable to meet the needs of transporting grain from the east to the west, and three years later it had to be rebuilt again. This reconstruction required the channel to be dug deep and wide so that the "Ark Giant Boat" could be navigable.

The reconstruction work was presided over by Yu Wenkai, an outstanding engineering expert. Thanks to the efforts of the plumbers, the project progressed smoothly and was completed that year.

The new canal still uses the Wei River as its main water source. It is more than 300 miles long from Daxingcheng (today's Xi'an City) to Tongguan, and is named Guangtong Canal. The transportation volume of the new canal greatly exceeds that of the old canal. In addition to meeting the grain needs of Guanzhong, there is also a large surplus.

The second is to regulate the Yuhe River in Nantong Jianghuai River. 3. What is the history of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal

The construction and evolution of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal can be roughly divided into three periods: the Spring and Autumn Period, the 10th year of King Fu Chai of Wu, and 486 BC. Hangou was dug in Yangzhou to connect the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River. .

In the Warring States Period, large ditches and chasms were dug successively to connect the four rivers of Jiang, Huai, He and Ji. However, this was only the embryonic stage of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. The development period of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal mainly refers to the canal system in the Sui Dynasty.

This is centered on Luoyang in the east. In AD 605, the first year of Daye, the Tongji Canal was excavated to directly connect the traffic of the Yellow River and the Huaihe River, and the Hangou and Jiangnan Canal were renovated. Three years later, the Yongji Canal was excavated to connect Zhuojun in the north. Together with the Guangtong Canal excavated in 584 AD, a multi-branched canal system was formed.

The further development period of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. The key sections excavated in the Yuan Dynasty are: first, the section from Sishui to Weihe in Shandong; second, the section from Dadu to Tongzhou.

In 1281 AD, the Jeju River was opened, from Rencheng (Jining City) to Xucheng (Dongping County) Anshan, with a length of 75 kilometers; in 1289 AD, a meeting was held to open the river, and a canal was opened from the southwest of Anshan, from It stretches from Shouzhang to Linqing in the northwest, with a length of 125 kilometers; in 1292 AD, the Huihe River was opened, diverting water from Changping in the west of Beijing to the capital city, and in the east it went out to Tongzhou and entered the Baihe River, with a length of 25 kilometers; in 1293 AD, the Grand Canal of the Yuan Dynasty The entire line is open to navigation, and watercraft can go directly from Hangzhou to Dadu, becoming the predecessor of today's Beijing-Hangzhou Canal. 4. History of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is the earliest canal built, the longest in mileage, and the largest project in the world.

It starts from Beijing (Zhuojun) in the north to Hangzhou (Yuhang) in the south, passes through Beijing and Tianjin and the four provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and runs through the five major water systems of the Haihe River, Yellow River, Huaihe River, Yangtze River and Qiantang River, with a total length of about 1794 Kilometers, it has a history of 785 years. The Beijing-Hangzhou Canal has played a huge role in the economic and cultural development and exchanges between the north and south of China, especially in the development of the industrial and agricultural economy and the rise of cities and towns along the line. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is also one of the oldest canals. It and the Great Wall are known as two great projects in ancient my country and are famous all over the world.

The excavation and evolution of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal can be roughly divided into three phases:

① The first phase of the canal. The infancy of the canal. In the 10th year of the Spring and Autumn Period (486 BC), King Wu Fucha dug the Hangou ditch in Yangzhou to connect the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River. During the Warring States Period, large ditches (which diverted the Yellow River from the north to Yuanyang County, Henan Province to the south, and poured into Putian Ze east of present-day Zhengzhou City) and chasms were dug successively to connect the four rivers of Jiang, Huai, He and Ji. .

②Phase 2 canal. Mainly refers to the canal system of the Sui Dynasty. With Luoyang in the east as the center, the Tongji Canal was excavated in the first year of Daye (605) to directly connect the Yellow River and Huaihe River. And reconstruct Hangou and Jiangnan Canal. In the third year, the Yongji Canal was excavated and connected to Zhuojun in the north. Together with the Guangtong Canal dug in 584 AD, a multi-branch canal system was formed.

When Emperor Yang (Yang Guang) of the Sui Dynasty visited Yangzhou, it was said that in order to visit Yangzhou to see the city flower, Qionghua, and to transport grain from the south to the north, he dug a canal from the Beijing-Huaihe section to the south of the Yangtze River. , with a total length of more than 2,000 kilometers. By the time of the Yuan Dynasty, the capital of the Yuan Dynasty was Dadu (today's Beijing), and canals had to be dug to transport grain from the south to the north. To this end, three sections of rivers were dug successively, and the horizontal canal of the Sui Dynasty, originally centered on Luoyang, was built into a longitudinal canal centered on Dadu and going south to Hangzhou. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is divided into seven sections according to geographical location: Beijing to Tongzhou District is called Tonghui River, 82 kilometers long; Tongzhou District to Tianjin is called North Canal, 186 kilometers long; Tianjin to Linqing is called South Canal, 400 kilometers long; Linqing The route from Taierzhuang to Taierzhuang is called the Lu Canal, which is about 500 kilometers long; the route from Taierzhuang to Huaiyin is called the Zhong Canal, which is 186 kilometers long; the route from Huaiyin to Guazhou is called the Li Canal, which is about 180 kilometers long; and the route from Zhenjiang to Hangzhou is called the Jiangnan Canal, which is about 330 kilometers long. Yangzhou is the famous city of Li Canal. During the reign of Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty, a canal was built in the city. Since then, Yangzhou has become a transportation hub between the north and the south. With the benefit of water transportation, it has become rich in the south of the Yangtze River and has become one of the most prosperous regions in China.

During the Sui Dynasty, it was divided into four sections: (1) Yongji Canal (2) Tongji Canal (3) Hangou (4) Jiangnan River

③The third phase of the canal. Mainly refers to the Yuan, Ming and Qing phases. The key sections excavated in the Yuan Dynasty were the section from Sishui to Weihe in Shandong and the section from Dadu to Tongzhou. In the eighteenth year of AD (1281), the Jizhou River was opened from Rencheng (Jining City) to Xucheng (Dongping County) Anshan, with a length of 75 kilometers; in the twenty-sixth year of AD (1289), a meeting was held to open the river, and a canal was opened from the southwest of Anshan. From the northwest of Shouzhang to Linqing, it is 125 kilometers long; in the 29th year of the Yuan Dynasty (1292), the Huihe River was opened, and the water from Changping in the west of Beijing was diverted into Dadu City, and eastward to Tongzhou and entered the Baihe River, with a length of 25 kilometers; in the 30th year of the Yuan Dynasty (1293) In the Yuan Dynasty, the entire Grand Canal was opened to navigation, and watercraft could go directly from Hangzhou to Dadu, becoming the predecessor of today's Beijing-Hangzhou Canal.

In the Yuan Dynasty, the whole journey can be divided into seven sections:

(1) Tonghui River; (2) North Canal; (3) South Canal; (4) Lu Canal; (5 ) Middle Canal; (6) Li Canal; (7) Jiangnan Canal.

The Ming and Qing dynasties maintained the foundation of the Yuan Canal. In the Ming Dynasty, the sections of the river in Shandong that had been silted up in the late Yuan Dynasty were dredged again. Weishan County) to Qingjiangpu (today's Huaiyin), we carried out canal projects such as the Kaisakou Canal, Tongji Xinhe, Zhonghe River to separate the Yellow River, and excavated the Yue River between the Jianghuai River and the lake to the canal. engineering.

As the main transportation artery between the north and the south, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has played a huge role in history. The navigation of the canal promoted the rapid development of cities along the coast.

At present, the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal has a navigable mileage of 1,442 kilometers, of which the annual navigable mileage is 877 kilometers, mainly distributed in the three provinces of Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang south of the Yellow River.

The Hangzhou Grand Canal is the same as the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. It starts from Beijing in the north and ends in Hangzhou in the south. It flows through six provinces and cities: Beijing, Hebei, Tianjin, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, with a total length of 1,764 kilometers. Ten times longer than the Suez Canal and twenty times longer than the Panama Canal, it is the longest man-made canal in the world.

The end point is the Qiantang River.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal flows through Tongzhou District of Beijing City, Wuqing District of Tianjin City, Cangzhou City, Hengshui District, and Xingtai District of Hebei Province, Dezhou City, Tai'an City, Liaocheng City, Jining City, and Zaozhuang City of Shandong Province. , 18 urban areas in Xuzhou City, Suqian City, Huai'an City, Yangzhou City, Zhenjiang City, Changzhou City, Wuxi City, Suzhou City in Jiangsu Province, and Jiaxing City and Hangzhou City in Zhejiang Province.

An ancient poem about Tongzhou says: A shadow of a tower identifies Tongzhou. The Ran Lighthouse stands at the northern end of the Grand Canal and is a landmark building in Tongzhou, Jingmen. The Tianjin North Canal and the South Canal meet in Tianjin, where they are sent together by the Haihe River into the Bohai Sea. According to records, during the period when water transportation was developed, the North Canal from Tianjin to Tongzhou carried 20,000 grain-carrying water ships and 120,000 officers and soldiers every year, as well as 30,000 merchant ships. With the opening of the waterway, the small Zhigu Village quickly developed into the famous "Tianjin Guard".

The intersection of Zhenjiang, Yangtze River and Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Liaocheng's lakes and rivers account for 1/3 of the urban area and are known as the "Venice of Northern China". They are very rare in northern cities, and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is one of them. Suzhou "If Suhu Lake is good enough, the world is full of it." The opening of the canal made Suzhou rich in water and food. Currently, there are passenger routes to and from the Suzhou-Hangzhou section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. At the entrance of the Huai'an Grand Canal, under the dock of the ancient town on the east bank of the canal is the former residence of Wu Cheng'en, the author of "Journey to the West". 5. The era of construction of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal

It is the earliest water conservancy project with the longest waterway in the world. Also known as the Grand Canal. It starts from Beijing City in China in the north and reaches Hangzhou City in Zhejiang Province in the south. It flows through the four provinces and one city of Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and connects the five major water systems of the Haihe River, Yellow River, Huaihe River, Yangtze River and Qiantang River. The total length is 1794 kilometers.

The construction of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal has gone through three major stages: ① In the 5th century BC, the Hangou was dug by the State of Wu. , Baoying, and Huai'an enter the Huaihe River, connecting the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River. ②At the beginning of the 7th century, the Sui Dynasty established its capital in Luoyang. In 605, the Ji Canal was opened, which led the Luoshui River eastward into the Yellow River. It then diverted water from the Yellow River to the north of Xingyang, Henan Province, and then turned southeast through Zhengzhou and Kaifeng until it connected with the Hangou River at Qingjiang River (Huaiyin), Jiangsu Province. More than 1,000 kilometers. Later, in 608, the Yongji Canal was dug from Luoyang to the northeast, passing through Wuzhi, Xinxiang, and Jixian to Linqing, Shandong, and north to Tianjin and Zhuojun, Hebei, with a total length of about 1,000 kilometers. In 610, a 400-kilometer-long Jiangnan Canal was dug from Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, to Hangzhou, Zhejiang, via Danyang. At this point, the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal from Beijing to Luoyang in the south to Hangzhou has been completely excavated, with a total length of more than 2,700 kilometers. ③After the national political center of the Yuan Dynasty moved to Beijing, in order to shorten the route from Beijing to Hangzhou that detoured from Luoyang, from 1283 to 1293, the Tonghui River from Beijing to Tongxian, the Huitong River from Linqing in Shandong to Dongping, and the Huitong River from Linqing in Shandong to Dongping were dug successively. Jeju River from Dongping to Jining. After changing the canal into a straight line, it was more than 900 kilometers shorter than the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal in the Sui Dynasty.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, on the basis of maintaining the canal of the Yuan Dynasty, projects such as dredging, separation of the Yellow River and the separation of the lake and the canal were carried out.

Canal Segments The Beijing-Hangzhou Canal was formed by excavating and connecting many natural rivers and lakes in different periods. The whole process is divided into 7 segments, from north to south: ① Tonghui River ( It is excavated from the Tong* River in Beijing. It is excavated from the lower reaches of the Chaobai River in Tong County. 186 kilometers long. ③ South Canal (Tianjin Canal). It is excavated from a section of the natural river downstream of the Wei River and is about 400 kilometers long. ④ Lu Canal (Linqing Canal? @? Mianye? Wuxi? Nai? Chu? Pseudo-Nanyang, Dushan, Zhaoyang, Weishan Lake and other water surfaces, about 480 kilometers long. ? It is 186 kilometers long. ⑥The Huaiyin Canal is 190 kilometers long. ⑦The Jiangnan Canal (Zhenjiang Lijia River is 330 kilometers long.

Comprehensive benefits The Beijing-Hangzhou Canal is the main artery of water transportation between the north and south of China. Since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, it has played a huge role in the development of Chinese society, politics, economy, and culture in different historical stages. Since the 19th century, due to the rise of north-south shipping and the later opening of the Jinpu Railway, its role has gradually decreased. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in line with the needs of economic construction and development, many sections of the canal were dredged, deepened or straightened, many new ship locks were built, and water sources and other projects were properly solved. question. After reconstruction, the entire length of about 980 kilometers, starting from the Liangji Canal in Shandong to the Jiangnan Canal in Zhejiang in the south, is navigable. At the same time, the canal has been used to provide irrigation, flood drainage, drainage, power generation and tourism. . The eastern route of the "South-to-North Water Diversion" project, which is under construction, has determined to use canals as water transmission routes to divert Yangtze River water through canals to water-scarce areas in North China to alleviate the water shortage problem in the area.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, which has a history of more than 2,480 years, is the earliest, largest and longest man-made river in the world. It has greatly promoted the development of ancient my country's politics, economy, military and culture. effect.

Before liberation, the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal was in dilapidated condition, with many sections of the river blocked by siltation, making it unnavigable and carrying very little traffic. After liberation, especially since the reform and opening up, the people's government invested a lot of money to carry out large-scale renovation of the canal, channelized the canal channel, and built navigation locks with complete facilities, which brought the thousand-year-old ancient canal to full vitality and became a The world's largest and busiest man-made canal. At present, the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal has a navigable section of 883 kilometers, including 173 kilometers in the Shandong section, 612 kilometers in the Jiangsu section, and 100 kilometers in the Zhejiang section. There are 17 steps and 35 navigable locks along the entire line. It is responsible for the transportation of coal from the north to the south and the transportation of mining and building materials to the Yangtze River Delta region. In 2004, the annual cargo volume of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal reached 200 million tons.

The huge transportation capacity of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal not only plays an important supporting role in the economic development of Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, but also makes it play an important role in my country's water transportation and economic development. Its important position is becoming increasingly prominent. The improvement of water transportation conditions of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal and the environment on both sides of the strait have also provided favorable conditions for attracting investment in the provinces and cities along the canal. Nowadays, factories, technology and industrial parks, and logistics centers are being built along the canal. It has stimulated the development of the local economy, attracted more workers, and made important contributions to ensuring social stability and unity. .

By 2010, through the implementation of the Xuyang Section continuation project of the Jiangnan Canal, the "four-to-three" project of the Jiangnan Canal, and the second channel project for the connection between the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal and the Qiantang River, the throughput capacity of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal can be Increased by more than 40%. By then, the ancient Grand Canal will provide more powerful transportation support for the economic development of the provinces along the river, the Yangtze River Delta region and even the country.