The Grand Canal
Five million conscripts dig a waterway linking the Yangtze to the Yellow River.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 4 years
- Known to
- ± 2 years
- Era
- Post-Classical, Holocene
The Sui reunify China in 581 after three centuries of division and, from 605, connect existing waterways into a canal system running some 1,800 kilometres. It moves southern rice to the northern capitals and armies to the frontier, binding the two halves of China economically for the first time. The human cost is enormous and contributes to the dynasty's collapse after thirty-seven years — the Sui build the thing and the Tang use it.