The Yangzhou China Grand Canal Museum, abbreviated as CGCM, stands in the Sanwan Scenic Spot of Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province. Covering around 200 mu (13.33 hectares) with a built-up area of about 79,000 square meters, the CGCM is a thematic museum that collects, exhibits, studies, and educates about canal-related cultural relics while catering to needs for tourism, leisure, and exchanges. As an iconic museum built as part of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park, it is a non-profit institution directly managed by the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism.
The museum is home to more than 10,000 canal-themed cultural relics since the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BC), including ancient books, calligraphy and paintings, tablet inscriptions, porcelains, potteries, and metalware. Its exhibitions are positioned as showcasing “the wonderful life brought by the Grand Canal”. There are three permanent exhibitions, namely, The Grand Canal of China – A World Cultural Heritage Site, Boats on the Canal, and Born from the Canal – Impressions of Ancient Cities, six thematic exhibitions including Major World Canals and Canal Cities and Wetland Wonders, a digital immersive exhibition named “Water flows left and right, the youth yearns day and night”, a small theater for performing traditional Chinese operas, an interactive experience gallery for children aged 10–15, and two galleries for temporary exhibitions. These exhibitions comprehensively showcase the history, culture, ecology and technology of the Grand Canal of China across the entire water course and throughout different historical periods using a variety of traditional and modern methods, earning the museum the title of an “encyclopedia” of the Grand Canal of China.
