Starting from Hangchow the canal goes by Kashing to Soochow, a distance of 100 miles, and thence by Wusih and Changchow through long straight stretches to Chinkiang, another 100 miles. It is here unlike our preconceived ideas of a canal—a current-less water-way barely wide enough to allow two streams of boats to pass each other—and has often a width of over a hundred feet between its sides, faced in many parts of its course with cut stone bunding.