The Grand Canal runs through the eastern side of Cangzhou, on the route that connected the Yangtze delta with Beijing. The reach here was part of the Yuan and Ming canal system, and the city grew as a port, salt depot and staging point for boats and travellers. The canal's commercial traffic declined in the nineteenth century and ended in the twentieth, but its channel, bridges and waterfront remain the spine of the old town.
The Grand Canal runs through the centre of Cangzhou, and a city district is named after it. The channel, its place in the 2014 World Heritage listing and the town it shaped are easier to trace than the boat crews who worked it.