Along the Grand Canal

From Wikitravel

This article is an itinerary.

The Grand Canal (大运河) is in China, an engineering work comparable to the Great Wall. Like the Wall, it is very old and parts of it were built by different dynasties. Unlike the Wall, it is still heavily used and actively maintained today.

The Canal runs roughly North-South from Hangzhou, South of Shanghai in Zhejiang province, 1800 kilometers (1100-odd miles) to Beijing. On the way it crosses two of China's great rivers, the Yangtze and the Yellow River and passes through many cities.

(We also have itineraries for trips along both rivers.)

[edit] The route

The main canal runs:

• Hangzhou
• Suzhou
• Wuxi
• Xuzhou
• Yangzhou, where it crosses the Yangtze
• Chuzhou
• Huaiyin, where another canal branches off to Kaifeng and Luoyang
• Jizhou
• Beijing