Lingqu Canal

The Magic channel (Chinese灵渠/灵渠, Pinyin Ling Qu, souls channel ' ) was a 32 -kilometer-long, 4.5 m wide and 1 m deep trench in a circle Xing'an to Guilin from the time of Qin Shihuangdis.

He was the first channel, which was performed on uneven terrain along contour lines of the anticline. Like it was built in Europe until the 13th century when, for example, the buildings of the Romans apart as the Drususkanal. The name expresses a certain reverence the ancient Chinese before the channel from (supposedly blue snakes as messengers of a dragon ).

The channel tamed two oppositely flowing rivers - the Haiyangshan from flowing northward and the southward flowing Xiang Jiang Li Jiang - and combined them together. This was in all probability a continuous transport from the Yangtze River over the Xiang, Magic channel, Li and the West River down to the modern canton.

The two rivers Xiang and Li first had to be made ​​navigable channel by jobs (including the reduction of the slope of the Xiang to 2.4 km). They could not be easily connected to each other directly. This was achieved with an artificial hill in the form of a snout, which divided the Xiang. In addition, a portion of the water has been derived by a plurality of overflow channels, and so on reduced power, the flow in the channel. Ultimately, there were only 3/10 of the Cheung water for the channel. The Magic channel was bordered on two sides of dams and stone walls and could be crossed on bridges.

The channel has been configured by the inspector Shi Lu and initially served the troops supply of grain in the attack of the emperor on the hundred tribes of the Yue in present-day Guangdong ( 219 BC commander ( Zhao ) Tuo Tu and Zhu ). He remained with short breaks after the fall of the Han Dynasty used to this day. Over the centuries, it was equipped with folding weirs and locks.

Since 1988, the channel is on the list of monuments of the People's Republic of China ( 3-54 ).