Shangtang River was theoldest canal in Hangzhou. Its construction began in the Spring and AutumnPeriod. When the Kingdom of Wu defeated the Kingdom of Yue, it dug a watertransport canal from Haining to the south of Gaoting Mountains, so when Yueconquered Wu, it was still called the Wu Canal. In 210 BCE, the First Emperorof Qin had 100,000 prisoners reconstruct the watercourse and extended it toZhejiang, calling it Lingshui Canal or Qin River, so when he inspected eastwardto Huiji from Danyang via Linping to Qiantang, this was his route. ShangtangRiver was the only waterway to Hangzhou via Liupu from the southern end of theJiangnan Canal when Emperor Yang of the Sui constructed the Grand Canal. In theTang Dynasty, it was renamed Jiatang River and became the Upper River in 634when Chang’an Dam was built in Haining. Shangtang River got its current name inthe Song Dynasty when it became the main channel of water transport via Linpingand Chang’an to the Grand Canal. According to the Records of Lin’an of the Xianchun Period, the Chian River connected the Canal and the rivers of Gaotang andHengtang in the Southern Song. On the river an official post named Banjing wasbuilt to receive the envoys from the north. By the end of Yuan, a new canal wasconstructed by Zhang Shicheng and Shangtang was no longer the main passage. Thecurrent Shangtang River flows 48 kilometers from Hangzhou via the south ofGaoting Mountains, the towns of Xingqiao, Linping, Shijiayan, and Haining tothe Qiantang River.