Meet Yangzhou, where the Grand Canal begins

A bird's-eye view of the Yangzhou China Grand Canal Museum at dusk. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Fuchai's Hangou Canal was later massively expanded by Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty (581-618). The ambitious ruler ordered the excavation of a watercourse with Luoyang in Henan province, the main Sui capital as the center, reaching southward to Yuhang Hangzhou in Zhejiang province and meandering northward to Zhuojun (today's Beijing area).

The massive engineering project, which is believed to have cost his throne, stretched more than 2,700 kilometers, forming a shape evocative of the Chinese character "人" (people) on the map and linking five of China's main river basins, including the Yellow River and the Yangtze.

More than six centuries later, Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and moved China's capital to Beijing. To expedite the country's south-north water transportation, the Yuan emperor decreed to have the Grand Canal straightened and revamped, eliminating the need for the canal arm flowing west to Henan's Kaifeng or Luoyang, both being capitals in former dynasties.

A summit section was dug across the foothills of the Shandong massif, shortening the canal's overall length by as much as 700 km, making the total length about 1,800 km and linking Hangzhou and Beijing with a direct north-south waterway for the first time.