Grand Canal, also called Da Yunhe, is a series of waterways in eastern and northern China that connect Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province with Beijing. Some 1, 800 km in     1     (long), it is the world’s longest man-made waterway. Strictly     2     (speak), not all of it is a canal, though. It was built to enable successive Chinese regimes(政权)     3     (transport)grain from the agriculturally rich Yangtze River and Huai River valleys to feed the capital cities     4     large standing armies in northern China.

The oldest part of the canal lies     5     the Yangtze and the city of Huaiyin in Jiangsu Province, which was     6     (origin)on the Yellow River when that river followed a course much     7     (far) to the south. This section, traditionally known as the Shanyang Canal, in recent centuries     8     (call) the Southern Grand Canal. This ancient waterway was first constructed as early as the 4th century BCE.

It was rebuilt in 607 CE. and has been used ever since.

China’s first great canal system,     9     created a northeast-southwest link from the Yellow River to the Huai River, was built beginning in 605 during the Sui Dynasty(581-618). Known as the New Bian Canal, it     10     (remain)the chief waterway throughout the Tang Dynasty(618-907)and the Northern Song Dynasty(960- 1127).