World Heritage Identification Number: 1443
World Heritage since: 2014
Category: Cultural Heritage
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇨🇳 China
Continent: Asia
UNESCO World Region: Asia and the Pacific
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The Grand Canal: A Historical Waterway System in China
The Grand Canal, a vast waterway network spanning over 1,800 years, is a testament to China's ancient engineering prowess and its enduring significance in shaping the nation's history, economy, and culture. Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014, this monumental waterway system connects five of China's primary river basins, forming the backbone of the Empire's inland communication system.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
The Grand Canal is a vast waterway system in the north-eastern and central-eastern plains of China, running from Beijing in the north to Zhejiang province in the south. Constructed in sections from the 5th century BC onwards, it was conceived as a unified means of communication for the Empire for the first time in the 7th century AD (Sui dynasty). This led to a series of gigantic construction sites, creating the world’s largest and most extensive civil engineering project prior to the Industrial Revolution. It formed the backbone of the Empire’s inland communication system, transporting grain and strategic raw materials, and supplying rice to feed the population. By the 13th century it consisted of more than 2,000 km of artificial waterways, linking five of China’s main river basins. It has played an important role in ensuring the country’s economic prosperity and stability and is still in use today as a major means of communication.
Encyclopedia Record: Grand Canal (China)
The Grand Canal is a system of interconnected canals linking various major rivers and lakes in North and East China, serving as an important waterborne transport infrastructure between the north and the south during Medieval and premodern China. It is the longest artificial waterway in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.Additional Site Details
Area: 20,819.11 hectares
(iii) — Unique or exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition
(iv) — Outstanding example of a type of building or landscape
(vi) — Directly associated with events or living traditions
Coordinates: 34.6938888889 , 112.4683333333
