Welcome! Welcome! Watch your step! My name is Zhou Chang Min and I'll be your guide as we travel up the Grand Canal to Beijing. Just call me Min, it's easier to remember. I trust you all have enjoyed exploring Hangzhou?
The first leg of our journey will take us through Zhejiang Province, a fertile region of green rolling hills. This section of the canal is known as the Jiangnan Canal. Our route is not the original one built by Emperor Yangdi which went west into Anhui and Henan provinces before turning north to Beijing, but the later route constructed during the Yuan dynasty.
I want to tell you a bit about boats on the Canal. Back in the old days, barges were the usual means of transporting large loads of goods. There was an entire branch of service, the Imperial Transport Army, just to haul these things along the banks of the canal with ropes. Of course all manner of vessels were used for smaller loads and passenger travel, pretty much anything that would float. The Chinese developed a distinctive sort of sail, the lugsail or junk-sail. Though we have sails on our boat, we also have a motor. A good thing or it might be this time next year before we reached Beijing.
We'll be reaching Jiaxing before long. Artifacts have been found there from the Neolithic Majiabang culture. Back in the Qin dynasty, the settlement was called Youquan, then renamed Hexing during the Three Kingdoms period. Jiaxing has produced many notable scholars, poets, and novelists.
We're entering Jiangsu Province now, a rich agricultural region known for its rivers, canals and lakes, which have contributed to its economic base of fishing and rice growing. They have their own style of cooking which features dishes made with soy, ginger, sugar and Shaoxing wine. Dazha crab, or freshwater hairy crab, is a specialty of the region.
We'll be stopping at Suzhou for a few hours so that you may explore the beautiful gardens here.
 As we travel northwest from Suzhou, that lake you can see to your left is Tai Hu. Tai Lake is the third largest freshwater lake in China and it's famous for its unusual limestone rocks, sometimes called scholar's rocks. Many of the stones you saw in the gardens of Suzhou came from this lake. Fishing is very good in Tai Hu.
Here we are at Wuxi, which was founded by two fugitive princes from northern China over 3,000 years ago. During the Han dynasty, the name of this place was Youxi, so called for the abundant deposits of tin in the area. But when the tin ran out, the name was changed to Wuxi (pronounced Woo-she), meaning no tin. Once the Canal was constructed, the region's agriculture and silk industry grew and prospered.
Our next stop will be Changzhou which was founded in 221 BC at the beginning of the Western Zhou dynasty. The name means ordinary prefecture, though the city has the lofty nickname of Dragon City. It is remarkable that so many famous people have come from Changzhou, particularly scholars. If you look closely, you can see the roof of the Tianning Temple, one of the largest Zen Buddhist temples in all of China. Changzhou is famous for its handcrafted combs, so much so that there is even a Comb Lane. The Canal became an important part of the local economy, as the countryside around Changzhou produces rice, fish, tea, silk, bamboo and fruit. Settle back and enjoy the rural scenery as we head north to Zhejiang.
Visit a Chinese Comb Exhibition
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