The Pinlu Canal in China, which will open for navigation on September 16, possesses several national and world records.
This new major Chinese canal is the first project of this scale since the founding of the People's Republic of China, built under national coordination to connect a river with the sea.
It represents one of the most powerful inland waterways in the world, designed for vessels weighing up to 5,000 tons. Compared to traditional routes, it shortens the inland shipping distance by more than 560 kilometers and is expected to save over 5 billion yuan (US$745 million) annually in transportation costs.
Furthermore, it is China's largest transport project in terms of earthworks: approximately 315 million cubic meters of earth and rock were excavated, nearly three times the volume of earthworks in the 'Three Gorges' project.
At the Madao lock, two other records stand out: the world's highest inland water-saving lock for ascent, where the maximum height difference reaches 29.6 meters, roughly equivalent to the height of a ten-story building; and also the world's largest inland water-saving lock, whose chamber measures 300 meters in length and 34 meters in width, comparable to the size of one and a half standard football fields.
Located in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China, this canal creates a new direct route for transport from southwestern China to the sea, providing a shorter path for goods from this region to global markets.