The Research Of Jiangnan Canal From1912to1937

Jiangnan Canal which is also called Jiangnan River is in the south end of GrandCanal. This canal which starts from Zhenjiang as its north end goes down toHangzhou by passing through Danyang, Changzhou and Jiaxing. Ever since1855,Grand Canal can no longer be proper for navigation through its whole route with fewexceptions, such as Jiangnan Canal. Jiangnan Canal, as an important route fromancient times,plays an important role in navigation even today. At the same time,under the instruction from government, most areas began to develop the so calledCanal tourism culture. This paper takes Jiangnan Canal from1912to1937as anexample to study the decay, the flow of direction, organization, management measuresand its impact. And then the paper demonstrates the evolution of this river.During the time of the republic of China, Jiangnan Canal was almost proper fornavigation for its whole line which inclueded the Jiangsu Province and the ZhejiangProvince. The flow of this river was the same as the before. Both the two provincesestablished organizations as Jiangnan Water Conservancy Bureau, Taihu Lake WaterConservancy Bureau and Zhejiang Water conservancy Bureau, etc. At that time, thetwo provinces cooperated occasionally. For example, the two provinces establishedthe Jiangsu and Zhejiang Water Conservancy Association to co-management ofJiangnan Canal. During the time of co-management, the north end of Jiangnan Canalis high altitude, which results in silting up and difficulty for navigation. Therefore,this section needed dredging. However, there were too many organizations forJiangnan Canal, whose responsibilities were obscure and were lack of fund. Themanagement situation of Jiangsu Province over Jiangnan Canal cannot be comparedwith that of Zhejiang Province. In March1912, Yun ShiKai became the interimpresident,and at the same time began a period of the Northern Government. Sincethen, the political instability restricted the reparing for Jiangnan Canal. After thefunding of Nanjing national government in the year of1927, the national economycame to a period of flourishing. Then, the respective dredging of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces came true.From1912to1937, there was abundant rainfall in the Jiangnan region whenadministration of government was effective. Jiangnan Canal was open to navigation.At that time, this inland river navigation promoted the mutual communication amongtowns and commodity circulation among areas. At that time, the development ofregional cities and towns in Jiangnan came into a golden time. Meanwhile, with newkinds of vehicles came into use, the Grand Canal gradually declined which had a badimpact in some towns as Zhengjiang and Suzhou.Jiangnan Canal, in the south end of the Grand Canal, declined with Grand Canal.From1927to1937, with the development of national economy, the government paidgreat attention to water conservancy construction. At that time, Jiangnan Canal hasplayed a positive role in the development of inland navigation, agriculture andindustry.