The Grand Canal, a large waterway that first connected north and south China over 1400 years ago, is shorter than it once was, but it is still the longest man-made river in the world.
The original Canal system began around the year 605. China's emperor realized that he needed a better way to feed his army. Specifically, he needed a way to move food quickly from China's southern rice-growing region to the country's north. Thus, he spent 6 years on construction of the first section of the Grand Canal, connecting existing canals, lakes and rivers. However, by 1127, parts had begun to worsen. In 1279, Kublai Khan began to repair and create a more direct north-south route to and from Beijing.
The Grand Canal was also an important cultural channel. Soldiers, merchants and artists transported ideas, regional foods and cultural practices from one part of China to another. It is said that Peking duck and the Pecking opera were both brought north via the canal. Even today, the country's watery highway plays an important economic role in China. In addition, local governments, eager to increase tourism and real estate （房地产） development, are beautifying areas along the Canal.
This development comes at a price, though. In Yangzhou, the city government has torn down almost all of the older Canal-side buildings. Farther south in the cities of Zhenjiang, Wuxi and Hangzhou, the situation is similar. "Traditionally, we talk about eighteen main cities on the Grand Canal, and each had something unique and special about it." explains Zhou Xihua, the director of the Grand Canal museum. "But now many of these cities are all the same: a thousand people with one face."
In 2005 a group of citizens proposed that the historic Grand Canal be made a UNESCO world heritage site. The status would protect both the waterway and architecture around it. "Every generation wants the next generation to understand it, to look at its monuments." said Zhu Bingren, an artist who cowrote this proposal. UNESCO status was officially granted in 2014. The hope now is that the grand Canal, one of the world's great engineering accomplishments, will continue to link north and south China for centuries to come.
