Travel and Transport in Tang China: Roads, Canals, and Journeys

Travel in Tang China, from 618 to 907, including the Wu Zhou interruption, depended on a traveller’s purpose, status, and access to routes. Officials and couriers used land connections; boats carried people and bulky cargo along rivers and canals; and pilgrims combined long walks with stays in religious communities.

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Journeys depended on purpose and permission

Ennin’s journey offers a detailed example of travel by a foreign religious visitor, rather than a picture of an ordinary household’s movements. A Japanese Buddhist monk, he sailed to China in 838 as part of a diplomatic mission accompanying Fujiwara no Tsunetsugu. His four-volume Ennin’s Diary records his journeys and stays until his return to Japan in 847.

Permission could determine where a traveller was allowed to go. Ennin had come as a monk on a short-term study mission and was not granted permission to travel to Mount Tiantai. A foreign monk’s extended residence also required imperial authorization. Ennin sought to remain in China and eventually travelled apart from the Japanese mission, relying on contacts and support from people he encountered. His experience shows that a route’s existence did not guarantee that a particular traveller could use it freely.

Roads, relays, and long walks

Land routes connected places that waterways did not reach. A roadway ran alongside parts of the canal network, with stables at regular intervals supporting a rapid courier system. This was organized infrastructure for official communication, distinct from the varied journeys made by other travellers.

Ennin’s itinerary shows how much distance could be covered on foot, and how travel could involve extended stages between destinations. After finding support among Silla communities on the Shandong coast, he set out for Mount Wutai, a Buddhist pilgrimage destination, on a journey of about 1,270 kilometres. His account describes walking stages of roughly 40 kilometres a day. From Mount Wutai he later walked about 1,100 kilometres to Chang’an, taking 53 days. He waited until spring before setting out for Mount Wutai, a reminder that the timing of a journey mattered as well as its distance.

Canals and boats carried people and goods

The Tang inherited a major waterway network developed under the Sui. It connected the southern region around Yangzhou with Luoyang and northern routes, using both artificial canals and existing waterways. The Sui network had also been intended to supply armies on the northern frontiers. Tang authorities rebuilt additional canals to improve connections between the Guanzhong region around Chang’an and the Central Plain. These links helped bring supplies toward the capital, though a connected water system did not mean that every leg of a journey was made by boat.

The canal system was especially valuable for moving grain collected as tax. Tang grain shipments along these waterways reached very large volumes, requiring coordinated fleets and transfer points. Because water depth varied between sections, the transport commissioner Liu Yan had barges designed to suit the depth of different stretches. Government granaries along the route provided reserves in case flooding or another disruption blocked shipments. The system therefore depended not only on waterways and vessels, but also on officials, specialized boats, and storage facilities.

Canal transport also supported trade and travel. Yangzhou, near the waterway, became a major centre for the movement of southern goods north. Ennin’s diary records journeys by boat along the Grand Canal, as well as travel by land. His arrival in China had already exposed the risks of sea travel: of the four Japanese vessels on the crossing, one was lost, and the ship carrying Ennin came ashore out of control and was wrecked.

Lodging and supplies along the way

Places to stay and find supplies varied with the route. Ennin’s record describes religious communities among the support available to a travelling monk. At Red Mountain, on the Shandong coast, he found help from a Silla Buddhist community. In the capital, Chang’an, travellers and traders stayed in the outer city wards, where commerce and everyday services were concentrated.

Markets offered food that could be bought ready to eat, including gruel, pastries, and cooked cereals, as well as beverages. For the movement of bulk food supplies, canal transport and government granaries were more important than any single traveller’s provisions. Within Chang’an itself, canals also carried essential goods such as charcoal and firewood.

Travel networks relied on people as well as routes

Ennin’s return journey illustrates how personal and commercial connections could make travel possible. He left China in 847 aboard a Silla merchant ship, with help from a Silla interpreter and other contacts. Silla maritime contacts connected his return journey with the Korean coast and Japan. His route, shaped by restrictions on his religious travel and by the assistance of communities and merchants, differed markedly from the government’s organized movement of grain or messages.

For the wider setting, see Daily Life in Tang China: Households, Work and Belief.