Northern Song Dynasty Freight Wharf on the former site of Liu Zi Sui and Tang Grand Canal Wharf.

1At the turn of spring and summer in 999, Huaibei City decided to widen and transform a section of roads from Suzhou to Yongcheng, and some of the widened roads just passed through Liu Zi Town along the south embankment of the ancient canal (called Sui embankment in history). After dozens of days and nights of excavation, the exposed area reached 900 square meters, and the experts' predictions were confirmed. A stone pier built along the east-west direction of the south bank of the canal is presented to people. The whole wharf is a rectangular building, with a length of14.3m, a width of 9m and a height of 5.5m.. The eaves are laid from top to bottom on the east, west and south sides, and rammed earth is used to protect the embankment on both sides. The rock wall near the water surface is steep and high, which is convenient for ships to load and unload. After investigation, this wharf was a freight wharf in the Northern Song Dynasty. This is the first archaeological discovery of the Grand Canal in Sui and Tang Dynasties.

It is the first time that eight Tang Dynasty shipwrecks were found in China.

However, what is even more exciting is that the archaeological team accidentally discovered eight ancient sunken ships while excavating the deep soil around the pier. Three of the sunken ships are relatively complete. 1 is a wooden structure, 2.6m long and1.92m wide. The stern rudder is broom-shaped. Ship No.2 is a canoe carved from giant round wood carvings, with a length of 0.6m and a width of1.10m. When unearthed, there were cultural relics such as glazed pottery and pickles jars in the Tang Dynasty. Ship No.3 is a wooden structure with a length of 23.6 meters. Due to the discovery of green glaze, tri-colored porcelain and the Tang Dynasty "Kaiyuan Bao Tong" coins in the soil buried in the shipwreck, the age of the shipwreck was recognized by experts as the Tang Dynasty. The sunken ships found this time are all located at the bottom of the river on the south side of the ancient river, and they are all inclined to the north. Experts speculate that the Yellow River overflowed and the river turned over. It is the first time that so many sunken ships have been found in the canal in China.