On September 16, 2026, China officially opened the Pinglu Canal, a landmark infrastructure project that marks the country’s first nationally planned and constructed modern river-sea waterway. Stretching 134.2 kilometers across the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China, the canal directly connects Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, to the Beibu Gulf, creating the closest access to the ocean for China’s landlocked southwestern interior and cutting more than 560 kilometers off the traditional trading route through Guangdong Province.
With a total construction investment of 72.7 billion yuan (approximately 10.75 billion U.S. dollars), the project took just over four years to complete. Engineers overcame significant technical hurdles, most notably a 65-meter elevation difference across the canal’s length—roughly the height of a 20-story building—by building three double-chamber lock complexes to accommodate vessels up to 5,000 deadweight tons. The project set four global engineering records: the strongest shipping capacity among comparable canals worldwide, the fastest lock operation for similar waterways, the largest water level difference for a water-saving lock, and the world’s largest water-saving inland waterway lock. Environmental sustainability was integrated into construction from the start: more than 98% of the 315 million cubic meters of excavated earth and rock was reused, and the canal includes a 480-meter fish passage as well as a dedicated crossing for local terrestrial wildlife such as leopard cats and squirrels.
The Pinglu Canal is a core component of China’s New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a strategic initiative linking China’s inland regions to ASEAN and global markets. On opening day, 30 cargo vessels transited the new waterway, and two new shipping routes were launched: the international Nanning-Can Tho (Vietnam) route and the domestic Nanning-Yangpu (Hainan) route. Four additional passenger routes were also opened alongside the cargo lanes, with initial shipments including containers, bulk construction materials, coal, ore, steel, and fertilizer.
Ding Xuexiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, attended the opening ceremony in Qinzhou and emphasized that the completion of the canal creates an opportunity to develop the Beibu Gulf Port into a world-class international trade gateway and expand opening-up in western China. As a critical multi-modal infrastructure hub integrating water transport, rail, and maritime shipping, Ding noted that the Pinglu Canal must leverage its unique advantages in coordinating land-sea connections and linking domestic and international markets to operate as a safe and efficient “golden waterway” between China’s interior and the ocean.
The opening of the canal comes in the first year of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), a period in which the world’s second-largest economy has prioritized more balanced regional development and expanded high-quality opening-up. For southwest China, a region that has long lagged behind the more prosperous eastern coast and faced high logistics costs for accessing ocean ports, the Pinglu Canal marks a transformative shift. It is projected to cut annual transportation costs by more than 5 billion yuan and reduce overall logistics costs by between 18% and 30% for regional trade.
China-ASEAN trade has grown rapidly in recent years, surpassing 1 trillion U.S. dollars for the first time in 2025. In the first seven months of 2026 alone, bilateral trade reached 744.41 billion U.S. dollars, a 24.7% year-on-year increase that accounts for 21.8% of China’s total foreign trade. Industry analysts note that the value of the Pinglu Canal extends far beyond just reduced shipping distance.
“The real impact lies in how much the canal can cut overall logistics costs, reduce travel time variability, and lower supply chain uncertainty across the entire China-ASEAN trade network,” explained Boonsub Panichakarn, a scholar from the Faculty of Logistics and Digital Supply Chain at Thailand’s Naresuan University. Lu Xinning, vice chairman of the Pinglu Canal project, added that the waterway creates a new direct connection between China’s 1.4-billion-consumer market and ASEAN’s nearly 700 million consumers, with benefits extending beyond just goods trade to encourage cross-border investment and deeper integration of regional supply chains.
Looking ahead, the canal is expected to reshape regional trade flows in the near term, shifting some cargo volume from road and rail to water transport and redirecting traffic from the Pearl River Delta to the Beibu Gulf. Over the long term, lower access costs to ocean trade are projected to attract new investment to southwest China’s interior and reshape the industrial layout along the canal. The Beibu Gulf Port has already seen rapid growth in capacity, with container throughput rising from just 2.28 million TEU in 2017 to around 10 million TEU in 2025. Analysts project that the Pinglu Canal will add an estimated 3.5 million tons of additional cargo throughput in its early years of operation, rising to as much as 150 million tons annually over the long term.
