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In the late Spring and Autumn Period (春秋时代), between the 8^th and 6^th centuries BCE, when China was divided into numerous competing states, King Fuchai of Wu (吴王夫差) made a monumental contribution to China’s long-term nation-building. Beginning in 486 BCE, Fuchai ordered the construction of a canal linking Wu’s capital at Hangzhou (杭州), on the Qiantang River (钱塘江), with the Yangtze River (长江) and, farther north, the Huai River (淮河). Its immediate purpose was to transport military supplies northward in preparation for a campaign against the State of Qi (齐国).

Historians described the construction as “raising shovels like clouds,” a vivid image evoking the dust plumes created by the massive excavation effort. This canal, known as the Han Gou (邗沟), became the southernmost precursor of the Grand Canal. It established the essential technical and geographical foundations for later large-scale canal projects, transforming what began as a short-term military artery into the backbone of imperial China’s economic and transportation network—and playing a lasting role in China’s political and cultural unification.

Because China’s major rivers generally flow parallel to one another from the western highlands toward the Pacific coast, there was strong incentive to connect them through north–south canals. The Grand Canal became the largest and most significant of these systems. By linking north–south canal routes with east–west river networks, it enabled efficient economic connectivity across the country. In particular, the Canal connected China’s two most fertile regions—the Yellow River basin in the north and the Yangtze River basin in the south—fostering economic, cultural, and political integration across vast distances for centuries.

In the 7^th century CE, the Sui Dynasty (隋朝) extended the original canal northward to the Yellow River, primarily to transport agricultural produce and economic resources from the fertile south to the Sui capital of Luoyang (洛阳). The Comprehensive Mirror to Aid Governance (资治通鉴)—the monumental 11^th-century historical chronicle compiled by Sima Guang (司马光)—records the following account of the Grand Canal:

“In the first year of Emperor Yang of Sui (隋炀帝, 605 CE), he conscripted more than a million people from various districts to excavate the Tongji Canal, drawing water from the Gu and Luo rivers to connect to the Yellow River… He also conscripted more than one hundred thousand people from the Huainan region to excavate the Han Canal, extending from Shanyang to the Yangtze River. The canal was forty paces wide, with imperial roads built along both banks and lined with willow trees… From that time on, the country benefited greatly, as these waterways supported the transport of grain, as well as the movement of merchants and travelers without interruption” (大业元年, 发河南诸郡男女百余万, 开通济渠, 自西苑引穀, 洛水达于河, 自板渚引河通于淮… 又发淮南民十余万开邗沟, 自山阳至扬子入江. 渠广四十步, 渠旁皆筑御道, 树以柳… 自是天下利于转输, 运漕商旅, 往来不绝).

Although this massive project is often cited as one of Emperor Yang’s greatest achievements, the immense burden it imposed on the population and the economy ultimately contributed to the collapse of the Sui Dynasty. Yet the Tang (唐) poet Pi Rixiu (皮日休) offered a more sympathetic assessment in a poem praising the canal:

“All say the Sui Dynasty fell because of this canal;
Yet to this day, a thousand li (each li is about half a kilometer) depend upon its waters.
Were it not for the emperor’s palatial pleasure boats,
His merit would rival that of Yu the Great” (尽道隋亡为此河, 至今千里赖通波. 若无水殿龙舟事, 共禹论功不较多).

During the Yuan Dynasty (元朝) in the 14^th century, the Grand Canal was extended even farther north to the Yuan capital of Dadu (大都), present-day Beijing, firmly establishing the city as China’s political center for subsequent dynasties. The History of the Yuan (元史), compiled in the same century, describes this section of the canal as follows:

“In the 26^th year of the Zhiyuan reign (1289 CE), the Huitong Canal was opened… It was one zhang (approximately three meters) deep and three zhang (about nine meters) wide… Thirty-one locks were constructed at varying intervals and elevations to regulate the storage and release of water” (至元二十六年, 开会通河… 深一丈, 广三丈… 建闸三十有一, 度高低, 分远迩, 以节蓄泄).

After three major construction phases spanning nearly 1,800 years, the main channel of the Grand Canal—connecting five major river systems from south to north: the Qiantang, Yangtze, Huai, Yellow, and Hai rivers—runs from Hangzhou to Beijing. Measuring approximately 1,800 kilometers in length, it includes 24 locks and 60 bridges (map below). The Grand Canal is the longest artificial waterway in the world and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.