Suzhou >> Grand Canal & Ancient City Gate

The Grand Canal ranks alongside the Geat Wall of China as the country's greatest engineering achievement. For centuries, the 1800-kilometre waterway has played a key role in the nation's trade. The first sections were dug about 400 BC, probably for military purposes, but the historic task of linking the Yellow and the Yangzi rivers was not achieved until the early seventh century AD under the Emperor Sui Yang Di, when as many as six million men may have been pressed into service for its construction.