Sixteen leisure boats on the Grand Canal in Hangzhou will make their first cruise on the Grand Canal on Oct. 1st, the National Day.

The boats will be called Caofang Boats,,in honor of Ming and Qing Dynasty Chinese trade and cargo ships.

Made of steel, covered with water and erosioin resistant timbers imported from Indonesia. The Caofang boats will be used for catering, sight-seeing, and a smaller version will function as rowboats.

The catering boat has a wavy canopy at the front, a restaurant in the middle and a kitchen and meeting room in the rear.

Large Caofang boats will navigate in the Grand Canal and Qiantang River, middle ones in the Canal, Shangtang River as well as Yuhangtang River, and small ones in Xixi Swamp. The rowboat version They can enter tributaries of the canal as well.

The Hangzhou municipal government hopes to make the Caofang boats a symbol of the City, just like the gondola is in Venice, Italy.