The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, first dug 2,500 years ago, flows through 8 provinces (municipalities), spans more than 2,500 years of history, and winds nearly 3,200 kilometers. It is the world's earliest-dug, largest-scale, and longest artificial river, benefiting later generations for more than a thousand years. Today, this Grand Canal still plays an important role in transportation, cultural inheritance, and other aspects.

　　Water transport is the basic function of the Grand Canal. Statistics show that the annual freight volume of the Jiangsu section of the Grand Canal alone exceeds 500 million tons, equivalent to the annual freight volume of 8 Beijing-Shanghai expressways.

　　Born of the river and prospering because of it. Compared with transport modes such as highways and railways, water transport has advantages including large transport capacity, low unit transport cost, low energy consumption, and less pollution. Navigable canals in various regions will inject momentum into the economic growth of inland provinces.

　　In early June, the Ministry of Transport issued the "Opinions of the Ministry of Transport on Strengthening the Planning and Construction of Coastal and Inland River Ports and Waterways in the New Era," which explicitly proposed giving full play to the role of trunk waterways as main corridors. It called for continuing to advance the construction of the Pinglu Canal and guiding the deepening of preliminary research and demonstration for the Xianggui, Ganyue, and Zhegan canals.

　　Today, canal excavation is quietly undergoing a revival.

　　Shenzhen Special Zone Daily News: On August 8, the construction task of the Pinglu Canal—the ** canal connecting rivers to the sea built since the founding of New China—achieved "double over half." Multiple provinces including Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Guangdong are also brewing canal projects, and China's inland waterway transport network is being improved.

　　Results of completed and ongoing projects are emerging

　　According to the Pinglu Canal side, the canal project has completed a cumulative investment of 36.8 billion yuan (RMB, same below), with 214 million cubic meters of earth and rock excavated, and the construction task has achieved "double over half."

　　According to the plan, this canal, which starts in Nanning, Guangxi, and follows the Qinjiang River into the Beibu Gulf, will be completed in 2026. After navigation opens, goods from southwestern China will no longer need to travel east to Guangzhou Port to reach the sea; they can instead go directly from the main stream of the Xijiang River south to the sea, expected to shorten the sea route by about 560 kilometers and save more than 5.2 billion yuan in transport costs annually for areas along the New Western Land-Sea Corridor.

　　The Jianghuai Canal located in Anhui Province opened to navigation in the second half of last year. The Jianghuai Canal connects the Huai River, Chaohu Lake, and the Yangtze River, changing the Yangtze and Huai River waterways from their original "二" shape to a "工" shape. It changes the situation in which water transport between the Huai River region and the Yangtze River region had to detour via the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, shortening the transport voyage by 200 to 600 kilometers.

　　According to estimates by the Anhui Provincial Department of Transport, after the Jianghuai Canal opens to navigation, it can save more than 6 billion yuan annually in freight costs for bulk goods in the hinterland, reduce carbon emissions by nearly 1.8 million tons annually, and lower logistics costs for industrial enterprises along the route by 5% to 10%. It is predicted that by 2030 and 2040, the total water transport volume of the Jianghuai Canal will reach 138 million tons and 185 million tons, respectively.

　　Multiple canal projects are in the pipeline

　　In addition to the completed Jianghuai Canal and the under-construction Pinglu Canal, multiple other canals are currently in the pipeline.

　　The Xianggui Canal connects Hunan and Guangxi and is called the "modern version of the Lingqu." It will complete deepened research and demonstration work this year. After the canal is completed, it will connect the Yangtze River and Pearl River systems, currently China's two largest water systems by freight volume, open up a major north-south water transport corridor, and achieve interconnection among 34 of the country's 36 major inland river ports. After connecting southward with the Pinglu Canal, it will effectively shorten the water transport distance for goods from the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River to the Beibu Gulf by about 1,200 kilometers.

　　Preliminary work on the Zheganyue Canal, which connects waters within Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Guangdong, is also being advanced. The Zheganyue Canal consists of the Ganyue and Zhegan canals. Once completed, it will connect the three major national strategic regions of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, with a total length of about 1,988 kilometers, surpassing the currently world's longest Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. About 60% of the Zheganyue Canal's route lies within Jiangxi, which will effectively enhance Jiangxi's locational advantages and promote the construction of Jiangxi's inland open economy pilot zone.

Expert views

　　Canals open up the "veins" of regional inland rivers

　　Ding Jinxue, deputy director of the Comprehensive Research Office of the Institute of Comprehensive Transportation of China's National Development and Reform Commission, pointed out that the advancement of canal projects in various regions helps remove bottlenecks in regional inland rivers, build a well-developed inland waterway transport network, and is of positive significance to the construction of a nationwide comprehensive multidimensional transport network.

　　He emphasized that some regions, especially inland areas with water transport conditions, are actively planning and building inland canals in order to find and open up economical and convenient sea outlets. This plays a positive role in improving local transport conditions, building a low-cost logistics system, and thereby attracting the layout of industries with relatively high requirements on logistics costs.

　　Wu Chuanqing, vice president of the China Development Strategy and Planning Research Institute of Wuhan University, believes that, taking the Jinghan Canal as an example, after completion, the Jinghan Canal will "cut off the bend and take the straight route" between the winding "V"-shaped Yangtze River channel from Jingzhou to Wuhan, building a new transverse canal. After the Jinghan Canal project is completed, it is expected to shorten the voyage by 260 kilometers compared with the current route through the Yangtze River channel and reduce transport time by about 14 hours. This will promote the integrated development of the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River urban agglomeration, and the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration.

　　Lu Yi, dean of the Institute of Intelligent Transportation and Modern Logistics at Changsha University of Science and Technology, believes that water transport is the most economical transport mode and is very suitable for goods with low timeliness requirements; however, the share of waterway freight volume in China is currently not high, and networking inland rivers will help increase freight volume and reduce transport costs.

China's canals

　　Jianghuai Canal

　　At the end of 2022, the first phase of the Yangtze-to-Huai Water Diversion Project began trial water diversion and navigation, achieving a historic "handshake" between the Yangtze River and the Huai River. As part of the Yangtze-to-Huai Water Diversion Project, the Jianghuai Canal connects to the Shaying River upstream, links the Heyu line in the middle, and extends to the Wushen Canal downstream, forming a Jianghuai Canal that runs through Anhui, Jiangsu, and Henan provinces with a total length of more than 1,260 kilometers.

　　Pinglu Canal

　　Today, the construction of the Pinglu Canal is in full swing. It starts at Pingtang River Mouth in the Xijin Reservoir area of Hengzhou and enters the Beibu Gulf, with a total length of 134 kilometers, a project budget of more than 72 billion yuan, and a plan to be completed and opened to navigation by the end of 2026.

　　Jinghan Canal

　　The Jinghan Canal runs from Jingzhou to Wuhan. By using existing river channels and newly excavated sections, it will "cut off the bend and take the straight route" for the Yangtze River, building a 230-kilometer-long, 8-meter-deep, 90-meter-wide artificial river capable of navigating 10,000-ton-class vessels. The excavation of the Jinghan Canal has been included in the 2023 Hubei Provincial Government Work Report, and construction is imminent.

　　Xianggui Canal

　　In the late 1950s, the concept of the Xianggui Canal had already taken shape. This canal connects the Yangtze River and Pearl River systems in Hunan and Guangxi. According to the plan, the Xianggui Canal starts in Yongzhou in the north, passes through Guilin, and ends in Wuzhou, connecting to the Guijiang River, linking to the Xijiang River, and entering the sea via the currently under-construction Pinglu Canal.

　　Ganyue Canal

　　The Ganyue Canal is part of the Zheganyue Canal, with a planned length of 1,300 kilometers and an estimated investment of more than 150 billion yuan. After navigation opens, ships from the Yangtze River to the Pearl River Delta will no longer need to take the busy southeastern coastal route, reducing the voyage by 1,200 kilometers.

　　Zhegan Canal

　　As an important part of the Zheganyue Canal, the Zhegan Canal connects the Xinjiang River in Jiangxi with the Qiantang River in Zhejiang, with a planned length of 760 kilometers.

　　World's Top Ten Canals

　　Ranked by length, the world's top ten canals are the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the Erie Canal, the Albert Canal, the Suez Canal, the Moscow Canal, the Volga-Don Canal, the Kiel Canal, the Gota Canal, the Panama Canal, and the Manchester Canal.