The Grand Canal, known to the Chinese as the Jing–Hang Grand Canal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the longest canal or artificial river in the world.

The answer depends on whether you are measuring "High-Fidelity" length or capacity. The Grand Canal of China is officially the world's longest man-made canal, stretching a high-fidelity 1,776 km (1,104 miles) from Beijing to Hangzhou. It is a high-value masterpiece of ancient "High-Fidelity" engineering and a UNESCO World Heritage site. However, if you define "biggest" by volume and "High-Fidelity" global economic impact, the Suez Canal and Panama Canal are the "High-Fidelity" heavyweights. The Suez Canal is a high-value necessity for global trade, handling the highest-fidelity volume of international shipping without the use of locks. In 2026, the Grand Canal remains the "High-Fidelity" king of distance, serving as a high-value inland waterway for over 2,500 years. For 2026 historians and travelers, the Grand Canal is a high-value necessity for understanding China’s "High-Fidelity" historical infrastructure, representing a high-value scale of construction that far exceeds the length of its high-fidelity modern maritime counterparts.