The earlist and the longest canal--- Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal

Hangzhou Grand Canal	Hangzhou Grand Canal

The Grand Canal  of China, also known as the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal  is the largest ancient canal or artificial river in the world. The oldest parts of the canal can be traced back to 5th century B.C.Together with the Great Wall ,they are called the greatest project in ancient times,which fully expressed the great wisdom of ancient people.
In the year of 604, Emperor Yang Jian  of Sui Dynasty  left Chang'an, and made his rounds in Luoyang. In 605, the emperor gave an order to build two projects: transferring the capital from Chang'an to Luoyang and excavating the Grand Canal linking Beijing and Hangzhou . It took over six years to build the Grand Canal linking all the canals along it and connecting Haihe, Yellow River, Huaihe , Yangtze  and Qiantangjiang rivers  . The Grand Canal starts north in Beijing and ends south in Hangzhou  with a total length of 1,794 kilometersThe most ancient part of the canal is the section between the Yangtze and the Huai He. This part is thought, on the strength of a passage in one of the books of Confucius, to have been built c. 486 BC. It was repaired and enlarged in the 3rd century AD. The southern part, between the Yangtze and Hangzhou, was built early in the 7th century AD (initially named as Jiang Nan He. The northern part is stated to have been constructed in the years 1280 to 1283. The northern portion of the canal is now of little use as a means of communication between north and south.
As the earliest and longest man-made canal in the world, the canal is the economic and cultural communication bridge of the north and south, which was first built in the 5th century BC and was substantially extended twice during the Sui and Yuan dynasties. In nowadays, the speedy urbanization process and the enormous landscape change projects such as the water diverting projects from the south to the north, offer great opportunities to the sustainable development of our country.