China's Pinglu Canal achieves full water filling, Madao hub sets two world records

The Pinglu Canal, a key project of China's New Western Land-Sea Corridor, has now achieved full-channel water filling and entered the testing and commissioning phase. The canal is expected to begin full operations in September.

As the first major canal built in China to connect inland waterways directly with the sea, the Pinglu Canal is designed to accommodate vessels of up to 5,000 tonnes. Stretching 134.2 kilometers, it links the main channel of the Xijiang River with the Beibu Gulf, providing southwestern China with a more efficient route to maritime shipping lanes.

To overcome a total elevation difference of 65 meters along the route, the project includes three major navigation hubs equipped with ship locks that function like "water elevators" for passing vessels. Among them, the Madao navigation hub features the world's largest water-saving ship lock in terms of both water-level lift and overall scale for an inland waterway.

The Pinglu Canal is also China's highest-class inland navigation project and the country's largest transportation infrastructure project by earthwork volume. In addition, it pioneers a world-first engineering solution: a three-tier, overlapping water-saving basin system.