treasureschina: Grand Canal

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The Grand Canal, also known as the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, is the longest canal or artificial river in the world. Starting at Beijing, it passes through Tianjin and the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the city of Hangzhou. The oldest parts of the canal date back to the 5th century BC, although the various sections were finally combined during the Sui Dynasty (581–618 CE).
The total length of the Grand Canal is 1,776 km (1,104 mi). Its greatest height is reached in the mountains of Shandong, at a summit of 42 m (138 ft). Ships in Chinese canals did not have trouble reaching higher elevations after the pound lock was invented in the 10th century, during the Song Dynasty (960–1279), by the government official and engineer Qiao Weiyo. The canal's size and grandeur won it the admiration of many throughout history, including the Japanese monk Ennin (794–864), the Persian historian Rashid al-Din (1247–1318), the Korean official Choe Bu (1454–1504) and the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci (1552–1610).
Historically, periodic flooding of the adjacent Yellow River threatened the safety and functioning of the canal. During wartime the high dikes of the Yellow River were sometimes deliberately broken in order to flood advancing enemy troops. This caused disaster and prolonged economic hardships. Despite temporary periods of desolation and disuse, the Grand Canal furthered an indigenous and growing economic market in China's urban centers through all the ages since the Sui period. It allows faster trading and improved China's economy.
In 1169, with China divided between the Jurchen-led Jin Dynasty in the north and the Southern Song dynasty in the south, the Chinese emperor sent a delegation to the Jurchen to wish their ruler well for the New Year. A scholar-official named Lou Yue, secretary to the delegation, recorded the journey, much of which was made upon the Grand Canal, and submitted his Diary of a Journey to the North to the emperor on his return.
In 1170 the poet, politician and historian Lu You travelled upon the Grand Canal from Shaoxing to the river Yangtze, recording his progress in a diary.
In 1345 Arab traveler Ibn Battuta traveled China and journeyed through the Abe Hayat river (Grand Canal) up to the capital Khanbalik (Beijing).
In 1488, the shipwrecked Korean scholar Choe Bu travelled the length of the Grand Canal on his way from Zhejiang to Beijing (and on to Korea), and left a detailed account of his trip.
In 1793, after a largely fruitless diplomatic mission to Jehol, a large part of Lord Macartney's embassy returned south to the Yangtze delta on the Grand Canal.
In 1995 Kevin Bishop and Annabel Roberts spent four months bicycling the entire route of the Grand Canal from Beijing to Hangzhou and on to Hong Kong from September to December of that year, taking photographs and collecting information. The whole project took him four-and-a-half years to complete before his book was published in 1997.
In 2006, the travel-writer Liam D'Arcy Brown went one stage further in travelling on most of the canal which is still in water from Hangzhou to Beijing using commercial barges.