Suqian Section of Zhong Canal and Qingkou Complex

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Suqian Section of Zhong Canal

   The Zhong Canal, the Middle Canal, was dug in the late seventeenth century for a very practical reason: the Yellow River kept getting in the way. Boats on the Grand Canal had to cross that unruly river in northern Jiangsu, and the crossing was dangerous and often blocked by floods and silt. Engineers of the Qing dynasty cut a new channel that avoided the worst of it, and the Suqian section is a reminder of that effort. It belongs to the Grand Canal's UNESCO listing, and the canal here is a broad, working waterway with barges, embankments and farmland on either side.

   Read the complete Suqian Section of Zhong Canal write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Suqian Section of Zhong Canal is where the day begins. Next is Si County Section of Tongji Canal.

2. 2. Si County Section of Tongji Canal

   The Grand Canal of China is the longest artificial waterway in the world, a chain of channels linking Beijing in the north with Hangzhou in the south, and the section through Si County in northern Anhui is part of its oldest and most important layer. The Tongji Canal, built in the early seventh century under the Sui dynasty, linked the Yellow River with the Huai and eventually the Yangtze, and made it possible to move grain and troops from the rich south to the capital. Hundreds of thousands of labourers are said to have dug it, and the project was so costly that it contributed to the collapse of the dynasty.

   Read the complete Si County Section of Tongji Canal write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Si County Section of Tongji Canal comes up about 96 km into the recorded legs. Next is Qingkou Complex.

3. 3. Qingkou Complex

   Qingkou is the place where China's engineers tried, for centuries, to make two very different rivers behave. Here, near Huai'an in northern Jiangsu, the Grand Canal met the Huai River, and from the twelfth century until the middle of the nineteenth, the Yellow River also took over the Huai's lower course, bringing enormous loads of silt. The canal crossed this unstable junction, and getting boats safely across it, while controlling floods and keeping the water level right, was among the hardest tasks in the entire waterway.

   Read the complete Qingkou Complex write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 243 km into the recorded legs you reach Qingkou Complex. Next is back through Si County Section of Tongji Canal.

4. 4. back through Si County Section of Tongji Canal

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Si County Section of Tongji Canal write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Si County Section of Tongji Canal, late in the day. Next is Suqian Section of Zhong Canal.

5. 5. Suqian Section of Zhong Canal

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Suqian Section of Zhong Canal write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Suqian Section of Zhong Canal. That is the ride.