China launches mega waterway project on Yangtze River

The project is designed to set global records in vessel dimensions, chamber size, and excavation scale.

It includes fish passages and revised designs to protect the spawning grounds of the endangered Chinese sturgeon, adding 2 billion yuan to costs.

The Yangtze River stretching over 6,300 km is China’s “golden waterway.” The original Three Gorges Dam, launched in 1994, has been central to flood control, power generation, and navigation.

The Yangtze River Economic Belt spans 11 regions, generates nearly half of China’s GDP, and accounts for almost half of foreign trade. It hosts major industrial clusters covering metallurgy, electronics and automobiles, while newer sectors such as AI, biomedicine and new energy are rapidly taking shape.

Existing locks surpassed their design capacity in 2011; throughput reached 170 million tonnes last year, with forecasts of 220 million tonnes by 2035 and 250 million tonnes by 2050.

The new lock and channels (6,680 meters) will take about nine years to complete, while downstream dam upgrades are expected in eight years.

The project is expected to ease supply chain bottlenecks, reduce trade costs, and strengthen inland connectivity with global markets.

River workers anticipate shorter waits and lower costs, while economists highlight the project’s alignment with China’s goals of high-quality development and green growth.

As written before, China tops global patent filings with 5.53 million inventions.