The Lingqu () is a canal in

Xing'an County Xing'an County is a county (China), county in the northeast of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. It is administered as part of the prefecture-level city of Guilin. Its area is , with a population of 370000. The postal code is 541300. Admi ...

, near

Guilin Guilin (Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''), postal map romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, romanized as Kweilin, is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the we ...

, in the northwestern corner of

Guangxi Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...

, China. It connects the

Xiang River The Xiang River is the chief river of the Lake Dongting drainage system of the middle Yangtze, the largest river in Hunan Province, China. It is the second-largest tributary (after the Min River) in terms of surface runoff, the fifth-largest ...

(which flows north into the

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

) with the Li River (which flows south into the

Gui River The Gui River ( zh, s=桂江, p=Guì Jiāng) is a river in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding ...

and

Xijiang The Xi River (; ) or Si-Kiang is the western tributary of the Pearl River in southern China. It is formed by the confluence of the Gui and Xun Rivers in Wuzhou, Guangxi. It originates from the eastern foot of the Maxiong Mountain in Qujing ...

, the latter is one of major tributaries of

Pearl River The Pearl River (, or ) is an extensive river system in southern China. "Pearl River" is often also used as a catch-all for the watersheds of the Pearl tributaries within Guangdong, specifically the Xi ('west'), Bei ('north'), and Dong ( ...

), and thus is part of a historical waterway between the Yangtze and the

Pearl River Delta The Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Referred to as the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area in official documents, ...

. It was the first canal in the world to connect two river valleys and enabled boats to travel overland between Northern China and the

. It is also one of the most well-preserved such projects in the world. The canal is long.

History

In 214 BC,

Qin Shi Huang Qin Shi Huang (, ; February 25912 July 210 BC), born Ying Zheng () or Zhao Zheng (), was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of China. He is widely regarded as the first ever supreme leader of a unitary state, unitary d ...

, the First Emperor of the

Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ) was the first Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China. It is named for its progenitor state of Qin, a fief of the confederal Zhou dynasty (256 BC). Beginning in 230 BC, the Qin under King Ying Zheng enga ...

(221–206 BC), ordered the construction of a canal connecting the Xiang and the Li rivers, in order to attack the

Baiyue The Baiyue, Hundred Yue, or simply Yue, were various ethnic groups who inhabited the regions of southern China and northern Vietnam during the 1st millennium BC and 1st millennium AD. They were known for their short hair, body tattoos, fine swo ...

tribes in the south. The architect who designed the canal was Shi Lu (). It is the oldest

contour canal A contour canal is an artificially-dug navigable canal which closely follows the contour line of the land it traverses, in order to avoid costly engineering works such as: * Digging a cutting or tunnel through higher ground; * Building an embankm ...

in the world, receiving its water from the Xiang. It was fitted with thirty-seven flash locks by 825 AD. There is a clear description of pound locks in the twelfth century, which were probably installed one or two centuries before. The canal also aided

water conservation Water conservation aims to sustainably manage the natural resource of fresh water, protect the hydrosphere, and meet current and future human demand. Water conservation makes it possible to avoid water scarcity. It covers all the policies, strateg ...

by diverting up to a third of the flow of the Xiang to the Li. The canal has been placed on the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Sites World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

tentative list.

References

Citations

Bibliography

*Day, Lance and McNeil, Ian . (1996). ''Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology''. New York: Routledge. . Canals in China Chinese inventions Geography of Guilin Xing'an County Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Guangxi Qin (state) Transport in Guangxi Qin dynasty architecture {{China-hist-stub

History

See also

References

Citations

Bibliography