Shortly after Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Guang, ascended the throne, he made an unexpected decision: to designate Luoyang as the eastern capital. He did this because he believed that Luoyang, with its long history, advantageous geographical location, and favorable feng shui, was the most suitable place for an emperor to establish a capital.
In 604 AD, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty personally rushed to Luoyang to inspect the surrounding environment. Afterwards, he ordered the relevant authorities to construct the Eastern Capital west of the Han-Wei city and east of the former Royal City in Luoyang. He appointed Minister Yang Su as the overall director of the construction, and commanded ministers Yuwen Kai and Yang Da to assist Yang Su. They conscripted two million laborers and launched a large-scale construction project.
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty ordered the transport of precious trees and unique stones from south of the Yangtze River and north of the Five Ridges to Luoyang. Due to the extremely poor transportation conditions at the time, moving a single large pillar required a thousand laborers. He also had a grand garden called the "Western Garden" built west of Luoyang, filling it with rare flowers, exotic plants, valuable trees, and extraordinary birds and beasts collected from across the land. To the north of the Western Garden, an artificial "sea" was constructed, featuring three "fairy mountains" named Fangzhang, Yingzhou, and Penglai. To the south, five lakes were dug, surrounded by long embankments lined with willows and peach trees. These five lakes were connected to the "sea" by a canal.
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was a man fond of grandiose achievements, and relocating the capital was far from satisfying his ambitions. Thus, he began constructing the Grand Canal connecting the north and south, linking the Hai River, Yellow River, Yangtze River, and Qiantang River.
In 584 AD, Emperor Wen of Sui ordered Yuwen Kai to dig the Guangtong Canal, which ran from the northwest of Daxing City to Tong Pass and into the Yellow River. However, by the reign of Emperor Yang of Sui, the social and economic development of the northern and southern regions had greatly improved, and the existing local canals were far from meeting the needs of society. To facilitate the transport of goods from the south to the north and thereby achieve control over the entire country, Emperor Yang of Sui began constructing the Grand Canal, which stretched over five thousand li.
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty first opened the Tongji Canal, which started from the Western Garden in Luoyang and ended at Shanyang (present-day Huai'an, Jiangsu) on the southern bank of the Huai River. He then ordered the renovation of the Han Canal, originally dug by King Fuchai of the Wu State during the Spring and Autumn period, widening and deepening it to connect the Yangtze River with the Huai River. Subsequently, he conscripted millions of laborers to dig the Yongji Canal. Additionally, he commanded the excavation and dredging of the Tongji Canal, which linked the Yellow River to the Bian River and then to the Huai River, the Yongji Canal from Zhuojun (present-day Beijing) to the Yellow River, and the Jiangnan Canal from Yuhang (present-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang) to Jingkou (present-day Zhenjiang, Jiangsu). By connecting these waterways north and south, they formed the Grand Canal that ran vertically through the country.
The Grand Canal is divided into four sections: the Yongji Canal, the Tongji Canal, the Hangou Canal, and the Jiangnan River, connecting five major river systems—the Hai River, the Yellow River, the Huai River, the Yangtze River, and the Qiantang River—forming a major artery linking transportation between northern and southern China.
After the Grand Canal was completed, supplies from the south could be smoothly transported to Chang'an and Luoyang, strengthening the Sui Dynasty's political and military control over the southern region. At the same time, the Grand Canal also promoted cultural exchange between the north and south, gradually merging the civilizations of the Yangtze River basin and the Yellow River basin into one.
However, this was an extremely massive project that exhausted both the people and the treasury. After the Grand Canal was completed, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty made multiple inspection tours to Jiangdu (present-day Yangzhou, Jiangsu). For this purpose, he ordered the construction of dragon boats as well as tens of thousands of other vessels. Each time he toured, he would bring along civil and military officials, nobles, imperial consorts, and palace maids, and the number of laborers specifically tasked with towing the fleet reached over eighty thousand.
The construction of the Grand Canal had already made the people's lives unbearably miserable, and Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, to satisfy his own selfish desires, further increased the burden on the common people. As a result, the Sui Dynasty quickly declined.