Chinese delegation Visits Erie Canal By Jean Mackay
Members of a Chinese delegation recently visited the New York State Canal System.
(Jean Mackay is Director of Communications and Outreach for the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor)
A delegation from China’s oldest canal visited the Erie Canal in April to see what it might learn from its much younger American cousin. The Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor welcomed seven members of China’s Waterway Bureau of Jiangsu Province in eastern China, which boasts the oldest and longest canal in the world.
Dating to the fifth century B.C., the Grand Canal of China is 1,114 miles long, the equivalent of a straight-line canal from New York to Florida. The canal connects the ancient cities of Beijing in the north with Hangzhou in the south, and is used primarily for commercial traffic.
Like the Erie, China’s Grand Canal has gone through numerous transformations. In ancient times people pulled canal boats along a towpath, no mules or horses shouldered the burden. Today, diesel powered barges carry cargo of up to 600 tons, thanks to major investments by the Chinese government to dredge, repair and modernize the system between 1958 and 1964.
