The Pinglu Canal Has Been Completed And Opened To Navigation

On September 16, the Pinglu Canal opening-to-navigation ceremony was held in Qinzhou, Guangxi.

At 10:25 a.m. that day, at the Madao Hub, as the whistle of the maiden vessel let out a long blast that pierced the air, the whole venue burst into warm applause, jointly witnessing this historic moment: the giant dragon of the century connecting rivers and seas—the Pinglu Canal—was officially opened to navigation. At Qinzhou Port, the sea and sky stretched vast, and the Madao Hub stood majestically. The 39.08-meter-high giant V-shaped miter gates, like a steel giant stretching its arms, opened the door of the era toward maritime strength.

The Pinglu Canal starts at the Pingtang River Mouth in Hengzhou City, Nanning, Guangxi, passes through Luwu Town, Lingshan County, Qinzhou, and follows the Qin River into Beibu Gulf. It has a total length of 134.2 kilometers, is built to Class I inland waterway standards, and can accommodate 5,000-tonne vessels.

Since construction began on August 28, 2022, hundreds of participating units and tens of thousands of builders have worked in coordination and fought day and night, building a high-standard, high-quality project, a green project, and a clean project. They completed three cascade hubs—Madao, Qishi, and Qingnian—as well as waterway projects and supporting projects. The Pinglu Canal has created four “world records”: the strongest navigation capacity among comparable canals in the world, the fastest navigation speed among comparable ship locks in the world, the highest drop of a water-saving ship lock in the world, and the largest scale of an inland water-saving ship lock in the world.

On the day of opening, the “Nanning–Can Tho, Vietnam” foreign trade route and the “Nanning–Yangpu, Hainan” domestic trade route were launched in both directions. Fourteen cargo ships loaded with white sugar, building materials, minerals, steel, and other materials smoothly passed through the locks and set sail to sea on their maiden voyages, while 16 ships carrying coal, iron ore, bauxite, chemical fertilizers, high-calcium stone, and other goods entered the Xijiang River basin in an orderly manner. The three major hubs of Madao, Qishi, and Qingnian operated with efficient interconnection and coordination, and ship lock scheduling was well-regulated, orderly, safe, and smooth.

At the same time, four waterborne passenger routes were opened simultaneously, including the Xinfu Waterborne Comprehensive Service Area–Madao Hub loop, the Xinfu Waterborne Comprehensive Service Area–Pingtang River Mouth loop, the Qinzhou Waterborne Comprehensive Service Area–Qingnian Hub loop, and the Qinzhou Waterborne Comprehensive Service Area–Longmen Bridge loop.

The Pinglu Canal connects the Xijiang River system in the north and Beibu Gulf in the south, opening a second seaward channel for the Pearl River–Xijiang River. It gives southwest China, in addition to its original eastward sea outlet, an additional southward water transport channel directly to Beibu Gulf, shortening the voyage to the sea by more than 560 kilometers. It is expected to save more than 5 billion yuan in freight costs for areas along the route each year.

At the ceremony, relevant experts spoke highly of it: More than 2,000 years ago, the Lingqu Canal was dug in Guangxi, connecting the Yangtze River and Pearl River systems; today, a new canal has been built here, connecting rivers and seas. The completion and opening of the Pinglu Canal will not only profoundly change Guangxi’s development landscape, but also have an important impact on the opening-up and development of southwest and central-south China and even the whole country, injecting new momentum into China–ASEAN transport, logistics, and economic and trade cooperation.

Special documents such as the 15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Guangxi’s Marine Economy explicitly designate Nanning, Guigang, Beihai, Qinzhou, and other cities as core hubs to build the Xijiang inland shipbuilding industry cluster and the Beibu Gulf marine engineering equipment manufacturing base. They focus on promoting vessel types dedicated to river-sea direct transportation via the Pinglu Canal, developing green and intelligent vessels as well as civil and public service vessel types tailored to ASEAN characteristics, and advancing efforts to fill gaps and strengthen the shipbuilding supporting industrial chain. They also call for establishing core supporting industries such as special marine steel, clean-energy power systems, and intelligent shipping equipment, thereby charting a clear path for the large-scale, cluster-based development of the shipbuilding industry.

Leveraging the Pinglu Canal’s river-sea connectivity and Guangxi’s gateway position adjacent to ASEAN, Guangxi shipbuilding enterprises have precisely cultivated niche segments in the ASEAN market. In response to local conditions such as narrow inland waterways, short and densely operated inter-island routes, and increasingly stringent environmental requirements, they focus on iterating lightweight, low-energy, highly adaptable small bulk carriers, LNG-powered public service vessels, all-electric sightseeing boats, and intelligent operation vessels, thereby avoiding homogenized competition in the domestic market. Compared with overseas products, these vessel types offer stronger cost-performance, shorter delivery cycles, and more convenient operation and maintenance. Compared with other domestic production regions, Guangxi also enjoys proximity-based local and technical service advantages, which help it tap the blue ocean market in ASEAN.