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Grand Canal of China
Longest canal ever built
The Grand Canal runs from Beijing to Hangzhou, about 1,776 km. Its oldest sections date to the 5th century BCE, and the Sui dynasty linked the parts into one waterway around 605-609 CE. UNESCO added it to the World Heritage List in 2014, and parts still carry cargo.
The Grand Canal is not a single canal dug in one go but a network built in stages over many centuries. UNESCO notes that building began in sections in the 5th century BCE, and that the idea of a unified imperial waterway took shape under the Sui dynasty in the 7th century CE. By the 13th century, under the Yuan dynasty, the system included more than 2,000 kilometres of artificial waterways.
Its main purpose was to carry grain and tax goods from the productive south to the capital in the north. It connects several of China's great rivers, running through eight present-day provinces between Beijing and Zhejiang Province, and crosses the Yangtze and Yellow river systems.
The 'about 1,776 km' figure describes the main Beijing-to-Hangzhou route. Other totals are larger because they include branches, older channels and sections that have silted up. Parts of the canal, especially in the south, remain busy with barges today, while some northern stretches are dry or are used only for local transport or tourism, so 'longest canal' refers to the whole historic system.