Grand Canal brings great wealth to historic city

Yesterday saw the first instalment of our long awaited series on the Grand Canal. We began at the beginning- in Hangzhou, where the canal starts. And today we continue on our journey along the waterway, this time to Yangzhou. It used to be one of the richest cities in Chinese history, all thanks to the Grand Canal.

Yangzhou, a city with a history of 2,500 years, used to be the richest city in the country. Time flies, and its remarkable wealth and position as the imperial pillar of politics and finance have gone with the wind. But its lavish arts and culture have been kept alive, prospering ever since.

No more hustle and bustle, but closer to nature, this metropolis has turned quiet and peaceful, just like the canal water that runs through the city and its past.

We head back in time now, to the source of the glory of Yangzhou.

The 1800 kilometres of the Grand Canal and the centuries of its history all began right here, in Hangou. This small ditch may look peaceful and fairly ordinary today, but 2500 years ago, tens of thousands of people were conscripted to work here, digging what was probably the first canal in human history.

"The grand canal started with Hangou, the first canal in recorded history. In 486 BC, China was split into kingdoms, big and small, fighting and gobbling each other up. The Wu Kingdom built the city of Han as its capital and dug the Hangou canal that linked the Huaihe River to the Yangtze. Yangzhou lies between the two rivers, facing the sea in the east and bordering three kingdoms. It was the only way to pass, as the Wu Kingdom sought to go north and west to fight two other kingdoms."said Jiang Shili, Deputy Director of Grand Canal Heritage Nomination Office.

This stone tablet marks the place where one of the greatest projects in human civilization got started.

However, Wu's dream of empire vanished only 13 years after the Hangou canal was built. A kingdom from the south launched a sneak attack, killing the king and his realm.

"The grand canal really took shape in the Sui Dynasty and prospered in the following Tang Dynasty. The last emperor of Sui sought to solidify his control in the south, and to have grain from the south shipped north to fight Koreans. So he ordered the canal to be built, which stretched over 2,700 kilometres from the south to the capital in the west, and then to the north. It linked the five largest rivers in China and has been the longest canal in human history ever since."Jiang said.

The accomplishment of the Grand Canal had a profound impact on Yangzhou, one of the most important stops on the legendary waterway. Grain and salt from the fertile south all had to pass through here, on their way to the northern capital.

On this wooden board we can see the posts and staff numbers of the courier stations. There were a total of 60 mail men working on land, while 176 were sent on to the canal. Little wonder then that people say that in old Yangzhou, there were far more boats than horses and carts.

In the 1930s, a massive flood struck an outlying area of the city. The water broke through the dam on this old waterway of the Grand Canal, flooding villages and farms, and rendering hundreds of thousands of people homeless. After the flood waters finally receded, these long-buried stone poles at the old dock were discovered. Years and years of ropes tied around the poles had left indelible marks, which provided a timetable for the dock's long history.

In ancient times, allocating massive amounts of resources all over the country seemed an impossible job for any ambitious emperor. But the Grand Canal made it possible.

"Yangzhou has been one of the most important cities for military and political reasons, as well as economic and cultural reasons. It was a transportation hub and a headquarters for managing and producing salt. Regions around the Huaihe river produced the most salt, enough for the whole country's consumption."said Wei Minghua, scholar at Yangzhou Culture Institute.

By creating a monopoly on salt, Yangzhou quickly become prosperous. In the Tang Dynasty, almost half of the empire's tax revenue came from Yangzhou. Its flourishing economy over the centuries has left its mark on the historical record, as well as on the landscape.

Salt Merchants once spent mountains of gold to build large homes for their families, which are open today as public gardens.

We are here at Ge Garden. Built by one of the richest salt merchants in the Qing Dynasty, it is famous to depicting the four seasons in this one garden. If transferred to today's currency, it would cost some 1.7 billion yuan to build all these. The place I'm standing at is called the longest corridor in the world. But it seems only forty meters long to me. What's the trick behind it? Here we have Miss Xia as our tour guide. Can you show us around the garden?

Bamboo and stones symbolize springtime, while the pond and strange-looking stones transported from Taihu Lake depict summer fun. This big building called the "Rain Listening House" is good for a visit on rainy days, and all the glass, both transparent and coloured, were imported from Europe. The big stones, carried from Huang Mountain, are decorated with autumnal red leaves. And the white stony ground, with its icy look, is all about winter.

The secret of the longest corridor is that it connects the four seasons from one end to the other, a passage that takes you 365 days to finish.

The Ge Garden is just one of the most famous private complexes built by Yangzhou's people.

The great wealth of Yangzhou rose from the Grand Canal. But the canal itself also came at a great price to build and maintain over the centuries. The highest price of all was the death of an emperor and the fall of his realm.