Tongzhou Grand Canal Park is located in Tongzhou District, southeast of Beijing. It covers a total area of 368 square meters (909 acres) with length of 4,600 meters and width of 600-800 meters. The park was first formed in 1936 and expanded in 1985. On April 26, the boat began to sail again on the Grand Canal after 107 years.

The Grand Canal is also known as the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. The total length of the Grand Canal is roughly 1,770 km (1,114 miles). It is the oldest and longest man made canal in China: many sources believe it to be the longest in the world. Starting at Beijing it passes through Tianjin and the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the city of Hangzhou. The oldest parts of the canal date back to the 5th century BC, although the various sections were finally combined into one during the Sui Dynasty (581–618 AD).

In Tianjin the canal heads northwest toward Tongzhou, it is here that the modern canal stops and that a Grand Canal Cultural Park has been built. During the Yuan dynasty a further canal, the Tonghui River, connected Tongzhou with a wharf called the Houhai in central Beijing. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, however, the water level in the Tonghui River dropped and it was impossible for ships to travel from Tongzhou to Beijing. Tongzhou became the north shipping terminus of the canal.