page_title: Grand Canal (China)
section_title: South-North Water Transfer Project
hierarchical_section_title: Grand Canal (China) / Uses / South-North Water Transfer Project
caption_attribution_description: English: Self-propelled barges on the modern route of the Grand Canal of China on the eastern outskirts of Yangzhou. (Looking north from a bridge).
context_page_description: The Grand Canal, known to the Chinese as the Jing–Hang Grand Canal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the longest canal or artificial river in the world. Starting at Beijing, it passes through Tianjin and the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the city of Hangzhou, linking the Yellow River and Yangtze River. The oldest parts of the canal date back to the 5th century BCE, but the various sections were first connected during the Sui dynasty. Dynasties in 1271–1633 significantly rebuilt the canal and altered its route to supply their capital Beijing.
  The total length of the Grand Canal is 1,776 km. Its greatest height is reached in the mountains of Shandong, at a summit of 42 m. Ships in Chinese canals did not have trouble reaching higher elevations after the pound lock was invented in the 10th century, during the Song dynasty, by the government official and engineer Qiao Weiyue. The canal has been admired by many throughout history including Japanese monk Ennin, Persian historian Rashid al-Din, Korean official Choe Bu, and Italian missionary Matteo Ricci.
  Historically, periodic flooding of the Yellow River threatened the safety and functioning of the canal.
context_section_description: The Grand Canal is currently being upgraded to serve as the Eastern Route of the South-North Water Transfer Project. Additional amounts of water from the Yangtze will be drawn into the canal in Jiangdu City, where a giant 400 m³/s (14,000 cu ft/s) pumping station was already built in the 1980s, and is then fed uphill by pumping stations along the route and through a tunnel under the Yellow River, from where it can flow downhill to reservoirs near Tianjin. Construction on the Eastern Route officially began on December 27, 2002, and water was supposed to reach Tianjin by 2012. However, water pollution has affected the viability of this project.
caption: Barges on the modern Grand Canal ("Li Canal" section) near Yangzhou
exif: {"Image Make": "CASIO COMPUTER CO.,LTD", "Image Model": "EX-Z50", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "0.90", "Image DateTime": "2008:08:16 12:29:37", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "282", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, 22, 0, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 5, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 16, 129, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "23556", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5788", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "77/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:08:16 12:29:37", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:08:16 12:29:37", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "205/48", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "14/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Daylight", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "87/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2048", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1536", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "23432", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0/0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "105", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard"}