The canal itself was named for the "Clear River" (清江, Qīngjiāng), a name first applied to the Si owing to its greater clarity than the Huai where they met near present-day Hongze Lake and then applied to the Huai itself owing to its greater clarity than the Yellow River, which shifted south into the former course of the Si during the Song.

The area was originally held by people considered to be Dongyi ("Eastern Barbarians") by the early Chinese.

In 486 BC, during the Zhou's Spring and Autumn period, the hegemon Fuchai of Wu constructed the Hangou Canal (t 邗溝, s 邗沟, Hángōu) between Hancheng (邗城, Hánchéng) on the Yangtze River in present-day Yangzhou and Mokou (末口, Mòkǒu) on the Huai in order to improve his supply lines during his conflicts with Qi.

[3] This early route relied on connecting a series of flood-prone lakes and streams and was gradually improved over time.

In 1415, the existing Li Canal (里运河, Lǐ yùnhé) was expanded with the Qingjiangpu, a 32-kilometre-long waterway (20 mi) connecting the Qinghe Docks (t 清河碼頭, s 清河码头, Qīnghé mǎtóu) across Shanyang County (t 山陽縣, s 山阳县, Shānyáng xiàn) with Shanyang City (t 山陽城, s 山阳城, Shānyáng chéng) in present-day Huai'an District.

On 8 June 2016, the State Council approved the merger of these two districts as Qingjiangpu and this was enacted on October 8 the same year.