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Grand Canal of China : Water Transport
By Dr. AB Thapa
Nepal and India had few years back agreed to carry out detailed studies of the Kosi development works primarily to avert the Kosi flood disaster. Components of the Kosi development works have already been identified in the 1997 Indo-Nepal agreement to conduct jointly the feasibility studies. The feasibility studies would cover the Sun-Kosi high dam project, the Kosi high dam project and a navigation canal linking Nepal with the seaport The 165 km long navigation canal extending from Chatra in Nepal to the Ganges river in India would be the most important component of the Kosi development works equally benefiting both Nepal and India that would help to promote the commerce and industrial development in our region. About 120 km long stretch of the proposed navigation canal would have to be dug in the Indian territory.
China is among very few countries in the world where the inland water transport was developed from the time immemorial. There are 5,800 rivers in China, totaling 430, 000 kilometers in length, of which 109,000 are navigable. In the last 40 years, large rivers have been regulated and small rivers canalized. Nepal and India can learn a great deal from the China’s past experience. Grand Canal is China’s oldest waterway. It dates from a period long before the Christian era and served as means of navigation and communication
Longest Canal System
Grand Canal is a waterway in eastern China, connecting Hangzhou in the south with Beijing in the north. It is the world’s longest canal system, extending in a generally north-south direction for 1,900 km.
Construction of the Grand Canal is regarded to have been attributed to the initiative of Yang Guang, the second emperor of the Sui Dynasty (581-618). The original canal route was constructed during his reign linking the northern region of present-day Beijing with the southern rice-growing region around the city of Hangzhou, on the Huang He (Yellow River). The canal system incorporated and expanded some existing canals, the oldest of which dated back to the 4th century BC and it connected the Yangtze (Chang Jiang) River and the Huai He. The oldest part of the canal lies between the Yangtze and the city of Huai-yin (also called Ch'ing-chiang; in Kiangsu province), which was originally on the Huang Ho (Yellow River) when that river had a far more southerly course. This section, traditionally known as the Shan-yang Canal, in recent centuries has been called the Southern Grand Canal (Nan Yün-ho). This ancient waterway is believed to have been constructed as early as the 4th century BC. It was rebuilt in AD 607, and has been used ever since The Sui Dynasty (581–618) built the first great canal system in 607–610, constructing a northeast-southwest link from the Huang Ho (when the Huang had a northern course) to the Huai River. Known as the New Pien Canal, it remained the chief waterway throughout the T'ang period (618–907) and in the early Sung period (960–1126).
New Demand for Transportation
The need for a major transport link again arose under the Yüan (Mongol) dynasty (1279–1368), whose capital at Peking required a grain-supply system. In 1282–83 it was therefore decided to build a new canal from the Huang Ho—which since 1195 had changed its course southward to usurp the former mouth of the Huai below Huai-yin—to the Ta-ch'ing River in northern Shantung province, which was dredged to give an outlet to the sea. The mouth of the Ta-ch'ing, however, silted up almost immediately. An alternative canal, cut across the neck of the Shantung Peninsula from the harbour also proved impracticable and was abandoned. Eventually another stretch of canal, the Hui-t'ung Canal, was built to join Tung-a-chen on the Huang Ho with the Wei River at Lin-ch'ing. In this way, the modern Grand Canal came into operation.
Yuan Dynasty and Grand Canal
Yuan Dynasty, 1279-1368, the period of Mongol rule over China initiated by the conquest of the Southern Song (Sung) Dynasty by Kublai Khan. Northern China had fallen to the Mongols in 1234, but more than 40 years passed before they gained control over and incorporated the rest of the country into what proved to be the largest land empire in world history. Under the leadership of Genghis Khan and then of his descendants, the Mongols in the 13th century carved out an empire stretching from what is now Korea and western Russia in the north to Burma and Iraq in the south.
During the 13th century, Mongols swept through China from the northwest. Kublai Khan, the Mongol leader, established the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368). It was during his reign that Marco Polo and other European traders established contact with the Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire linked Europe and East Asia, initiating the first direct contacts between China and the West. After the Mongols imposed their rule over much of Asia, they promoted trade and travel, permitting West Asian and European traders, artisans, and missionaries to reach China. Chinese silks and ceramics arrived in Europe via Eurasian caravan trails and stimulated European demand for these products, inspiring the search for a sea route to East Asia.
Yuan Dynasty rulers fostered trade and accorded merchants a high social status. Moreover, they promoted commerce by increasing the use of paper money, by offering cheap loans to merchant associations, by building roads, and by allowing traveling merchants to lodge and to obtain supplies at government postal stations, which were located about 32 km apart throughout the empire. Concern about supplying the new capital led the Yuan court to initiate the ambitious project of rerouting and expanding the GRAND CANAL, aiding the shipping of surplus grain from southern China to the less fertile lands of the north.
Peking Again Became Capital
At the beginning of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), the capital was at Nanking. After Peking again became the seat of government in 1403,the whole canal—including the section from Lin-ch'ing on the Wei to its junction with the Huang Ho, which was dredged and repaired, remained in operation until the 19th century. It comprised six main sections: (1) a short canal from the outskirts of Peking to T'ung-chou, (2) a canalized river joining the Hai River to Tientsin and then joining the Wei River as far as Lin-ch'ing, (3) a section in Shantung rising over comparatively high ground from Lin-ch'ing to its highest point near Chi-ning and then falling again to a point near Süchow, a difficult stretch with a number of sluices and dams using water from a number of small rivers flowing off the T'ai Mountains and from the string of lakes southeast of Chi-ning, (4) a stretch from Süchow that followed the southern course of the Huang Ho as far as Huai-yin, (5) a section from Huai-yin following the ancient Shan-yang Canal south to Chen-chiang on the Yangtze, and (6) a section south of the Yangtze where the canal ran southeast then southwest for some 320 km via Su-chou to Hang-chou.
New Repair Works
In the 19th century a series of disastrous floods broke the dikes of the Huang Ho (which began to move to its present northern course), caused great problems in the section of the canal between Süchow and Huai-yin, and cut across the canal between Lin-ch'ing and Chi-ning. After the Taiping Rebellion (1850–64) and the Nien Rebellion (1853–68), the use of the canal as the major supply line to Peking was abandoned, and the canal gradually fell into disrepair in its northern sections. After 1934 the China carried out extensive works on the canal between Huai-yin and the Yangtze; ship locks were constructed to allow medium-sized steamers to use this section, which was dredged and largely rebuilt.
New work was begun in 1958 to restore the whole system as a trunk waterway able to carry ships of up to 600 tons. Between 1958 and 1964 it was straightened, widened, dredged, one new section 64 km long was constructed, and modern locks were added. The canal can now accommodate medium-sized barge traffic throughout its length. The main traffic, however, is concentrated in the southern half. The canal is also used to divert water from the Yangtze River to northern Kiangsu province for irrigation, making possible double cropping of rice.
At The Present Time
Inland navigation on China's many rivers and canals accounts for a large proportion of the goods shipped within the country, and its potential for increased development is great. Despite the fact that the largest inland waterway is the Yangtze River, which has major ports at Chongqing, Yichang and Wuhan, and some 18,000 km of the Yangtze and its tributaries can be traveled by steamboats, the busiest inland waterway system in China, however, is the Grand Canal, which extends from Beijing to Hangzhou, near Shanghai. The southern portion of the canal is actually a network of many local canals and lakes. Such cities as Suzhou, Wuxi, and Changzhou are important inland ports in this region. In parts of rural China, peasants use irrigation and drainage canals as inland waterways.
(Dr. Thapa writes on water resources)
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