Golden waterway opened to fast link China's southwest with the sea

The Pinglu Canal — a mammoth project designed to fast connect China's inner regions in the southwest with the sea — opened to traffic for navigation on Sept 16 in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, enabling vessels with a draft of 5,000 metric tons to travel freely in its 134.2-kilometer waterway.

The canal, the first inland-to-sea waterway constructed under national-level coordination since 1949 and a key project of the Western Land-Sea New Corridor, starts in the north at the Pingtang River estuary in Xijin Reservoir area of Hengzhou under Nanning, capital of Guangxi in South China. It runs along the Qinjiang River through Luwu town in Lingshan county in Qinzhou — a prefecture-level city in Guangxi — before finally reaching the Beibu Gulf.

Fan Yanbin, a staffer from Shanghai Civil Engineering Co Ltd of China Railway Group Ltd (CREC) — one of the participants in building the canal — said that the canal carried a total investment of some 72.7 billion yuan ($10.8 billion) and was built with Class-I standards for inland waterways.

Fan added that the canal started its construction on Aug 28, 2022, and is the highest-grade navigable canal in China. During the period, CREC Shanghai Civil Engineering helped undertake some key projects.