Qualla: North Jiangsu Main Irrigation Canal

North Jiangsu Main Irrigation Canal: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Zhou Enlai grew up in the Huai River drainage basin, and he knew what the river could do. The Huai had flooded catastrophically for as long as anyone could remember, drowning crops and communities across the North China Plain with a regularity that felt less like natural disaster than divine punishment. In 1950, the flooding was particularly devastating, and the Premier -- despite China being newly founded and already engaged in the Korean War -- insisted that the canal project proceed. The nation could not afford it. Zhou argued that the people of the Huai River basin could not afford to wait.

North Jiangsu Main Irrigation Canal: Seven Months, One Million Workers

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Construction began on November 2, 1951, and was completed by May 1952 -- seven months to build 168 kilometers of canal from Gaoliangjian on Hongze Lake to the artificial estuary of Biandan Harbour on the coast. More than 1,190,000 civilian workers participated, moving earth by ha...

North Jiangsu Main Irrigation Canal: A System of Four Canals

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The North Jiangsu Main Irrigation Canal -- commonly called the Subei Canal -- does not operate in isolation. It forms one side of a quadrangle of waterways that together constitute an integrated irrigation and flood control system. The Grand Canal crosses the Subei Canal in the w...

North Jiangsu Main Irrigation Canal: Taming the Flowing Mud

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The canal's original incarnation was built between 1934 and 1937 to divert the Huai River's floodwaters, but in 1938 the Japanese military destroyed key dams, causing the Yellow River to redirect into the Huai's channel. The resulting devastation was immense -- the region flooded...

North Jiangsu Main Irrigation Canal: Water Moving in Every Direction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The completed canal serves multiple purposes beyond irrigation. Designed to transfer water at 5,000 cubic meters per second, it functions as a major flood relief channel for the lower Huai River. A parallel drainage canal on the north side handles overflow at 800 cubic meters per...