Large Channel (China)

History

The project of a water way through the China was initiated at the end of the Period of Springs and the Falls (722 - 481 av. J. - C.), when Fu Chai, the sovereign of the State de Wu (nowadays the Suzhou), accomplished voyages of conquest towards the kingdoms of North. It ordered the construction of a channel, called Han Gou , for military transport. The channel was dug starting from Yangzhou with the Jiangsu, diverting water of the Yangzi Jiang towards North.

The channel was lengthened under the Dynastie Sui (581 - 618) and later under the Dynastie Yuan (1206 - 1368), to become known under the name of Grand Channel . In the year 604, the emperor Sui Yangdi of the Dynastie Sui left the town of Chang' year (nowadays Xi' year), the capital, and settled with Luoyang. In 605, the emperor gave orders for two construction projects: to transfer the Capital from Chang' year to Luoyang and to carry out the connection between Beijing and Hangzhou and the Large Channel. Six years were necessary to carry out these connections with the Large Channel, connecting the five following rivers: the Hai He, the Huang He, the Hooted He, the Qiantang Jiang and the Yangzi Jiang. The Large Channel begins in north by Beijing and finishes in the south with Hangzhou with the Zhejiang, with an overall length of: 1794 km. It passes in particular in the towns of Beijing, Tianjin, and crosses the provinces of the Hebei, of the Shandong, the Jiangsu and the Zhejiang.

During the dynasties Yuan, Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644 - 1911), the Large Channel was the principal artery between the north and the south of China, and was essential for the provisioning of Beijing of Céréale S. Although the Large Channel was primarily reserved for this type of transport, it was of course used for other uses. The various zones drained by the channel profited from its economic importance. The files mention that each years more than eight thousand ships transported four to six million daN S (two hundred and thousand to three hundred and thousand tons) of cereals towards Beijing. The channel also made it possible to the leaders of China to regularly traverse their empire towards the South. Under the Qing dynasty, the emperors Kangxi and Qianlong made twelve voyages towards the South, generally until the term of Hangzhou.

The Large Channel allowed also cultural exchanges between the north and the south of China. The channel made strong impression with the first visitors of the empire. Marco Polo mentioned the bridges with arches of the Large Channel, like its important warehouses and the trade which the channel at the 13th century generated. The missionary roman catholic Matteo Ricci travelled of Nankin to Beijing by the channel at the end of the 16th century.

About the middle of the 19th century however, the development of the maritime transport and the opening of the ways of Railroad Tianjin - Pukou and Peking Hankou largely reduced the role of the channel like major artery of transport in China. Important parts ceased being maintained, being envasant quickly. With the advent of the Popular republic of China in 1949, important work of rehabilitation were begun on the Large Channel to give again its economic importance first.

Dimensions

According to the documents published by the Gandar father, the overall length of the channel is of: 3630 Li S, is approximately: 1930 km. An approximate measurement, taking again only the principal course of the channel, gives a 850 miles length. After having left Hangzhou, the channel passes around the Eastern limit of the Tai Hu, passes close to the town of Suzhou and takes a north-western head office in direction of the fertile district of Jiangsu until the Jingjiang on Yangzi Jiang. In this southernmost part, the current is soft and relatively deep water (2,1 meters in the event of low waters, 3,4 meter out of high water, even 4 meters into raw). Between Suzhou and Jingjiang, the channel regularly exceeds the thirty meters of width, with banks empierrées in many places. The channel is crossed many carved bridges of stone, and it shelters on its banks of many temples and delicate Pagode S.

Cours

The central part of the Large Channel, located between Jingjiang and Qingjiangpu, section which crosses in particular the course drained that borrowed before 1852 the Huang He, the current is powerful and the increase towards North is difficult. This part of the channel crosses various lakes and is fed by the Huai He resulting from the lake Xingzuo. The ground located at the west of the channel is higher than the channel, and the lower part located at the east. The two wide ones are known respectively under the names of Shanghe (literally “with the top of the river”) and Xiahe (“in lower part of the river”). Irrigation canals towards Xiahe (one of the great rice areas producing in China) make it possible to evacuate the surplus of water in period of risings.

The northern section, which is also longest, share of the old course of Huang He until Tianjin. It borrows for great part the course of existing rivers. Between Xingjiangpu and the current course of the Yellow River, the channel takes a north-north-west direction, near the highlands of the Shandong. In this area, it passes through a series of Lagon s, which forms only one lake in summer, the Zhouyang. In the north of this lake, on Eastern bank, the town of Ziningzhou is. With approximately forty kilometers in the north of this city, the channel reaches its high point at the town of Nanwang. The Hen river penetrates at this place in the channel and approximately fifty kilometers more in north, Huang He is reached. In the west of the channel, at the junction point with Huang He, is a dry course which would have, according to charts of the 18th century, summer borrowed by Huang He before its abandonment in 1851 - 1853.

The passage of Huang He towards the northern section is difficult and can be carried out only at unquestionable period of the year when the current of Huang He is acceptable, and the water level neither nor too low to allow the passage too high. Beyond, the channel passes by an undulating and forest area, in the west of Dongpingzhou and the east of Dongchangfu. With Linjingzhou, the channel crosses the Wei He in the center of the city. From here, of Qingjiangbu in Linjingzhou, on a distance from nearly five hundred kilometers, navigation is difficult and the channel not easily fed out of water. The differences in level between the levels, from seven to ten meters, are marked by Barrage S, that the boats possibly go up after having discharged their cargo. Beyond the junction with Wei He, the channel borrows the river and becomes again easily navigable. While penetrating towards the west in the Hebei, between Dezhou and Zangzhou, the channel crosses the Hai He with Tianjin, after having received water of the river Geduo around Qingxian.

The oldest part of the channel is that located between Yangzi Jiang and the Huai He. One generally thinks that it dates, according to an extract of a book of Confucius, year -486. It was repaired and extended to the 3rd century. Its southern part, between Yangzi Jiang and Hangzhou, was built at the beginning of the 7th century (initially called Jiang Nan He , 江南河). The septentrional part was built between 1280 and 1283. The channel was entirely rebuilt between 1411 and 1415, during the Dynastie Ming, by the emperor Yongle. The northern part of the channel is now used. It is of bad invoice, neglected and charged with muddy water of Huang He. The southern and central parts are more used.

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