The Grand Canal (大运河) is the mother river of Yangzhou. Today it is still an important way for people to t  . In the year AD 605, Emperor Yang ordered the canal to be dug. Digging such a long canal proved to be very d    . 3.6 million people worked on it and in less than a year many of them lost their lives. When the construction(工程) was c   , the journey from the north to the south became more direct. It was much e    for Emperor Yang to visit Yangzhou and he paid three visits to the city d     his life.  In the year AD 618, Emperor Yang was killed by his followers in one of his palaces in Yangzhou, and the Sui Dynasty e     . Everyone complains that the Sui Dynasty ended because of the Grand Canal.
However, even today the Grand Canal s     plays an important role in travel. It is the l    canal in the world so far. It r     from Beijing to Hangzhou, covering a distance of nearly 1,800 kilometres and joining five r     including the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. Every day, ships go up and down the canal, carrying things between the north and the south.