By the end of 2026, China will inaugurate the largest inland-waterway project the country has ever built. Four years of construction and roughly $10 billion in investment have gone into the Pinglu Canal, which — according to Chinese authorities — has now entered its final stage. The waterway is expected to open to navigation by the end of 2026, with September identified as the most likely date.

For Beijing, this is a strategic piece of infrastructure. The man-made canal stretches for 134 kilometers (about 83 miles) across the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China. It starts at the Xijin reservoir on the Yu River, near the city of Nanning, and runs all the way to the Beibu Gulf — the Chinese name for the northern part of the Gulf of Tonkin — cutting through the Qin River along the way. In doing so, it will create the first direct link between China’s inland river network and the South China Sea.

The new route will solve a long-standing logistics headache. Today, goods coming out of China’s landlocked southwestern provinces have to travel hundreds of kilometers east to reach major ports like Shenzhen and Guangzhou before they can be loaded for export. The Pinglu Canal will cut roughly 560 kilometers (about 350 miles) off the current routes, generating estimated annual savings of around $750 million.

The math is straightforward: water transport remains far cheaper than the alternatives. Moving cargo by water costs about half as much as by rail, one-fifth as much as by road, and one-twentieth as much as by air. For heavy, bulky goods, ships are still the most efficient and economical option.

Engineering feats — and environmental pushback

Building the Pinglu Canal required overcoming massive engineering challenges. The route covers a total elevation difference of 65 meters (about 213 feet). To handle that, engineers built three giant lock complexes, each with two chambers measuring 300 meters long and 34 meters wide — large enough to accommodate cargo vessels of up to 5,000 tons.

The locks operate like hydraulic elevators: ships enter the chambers, the water level is raised or lowered, and the vessels continue their journey. Along the route, crews also built 27 bridges and 13 operational docks. Worth noting: the canal was not dug entirely from scratch — the path combines stretches of existing rivers with newly excavated sections.

The project has not been without controversy, especially on the environmental front. Several experts warn that large artificial canals can profoundly alter river ecosystems. Environmentalists have also flagged the risk of increased pollution and damage to aquatic wildlife.

The Chinese government argues it has taken extensive measures to limit the project’s environmental impact. Officials say 36 ecological protection zones have been established along the route, alongside fish ladders and advanced water-monitoring systems. According to Beijing, these tools will keep the environmental consequences of the canal to a minimum.

Editor’s note

This article was originally published in Italian on money.it by Alessandro Nuzzo on May 18, 2026 as «La Cina sta costruendo un megaprogetto di ingegneria. Costerà 10 miliardi, ma farà guadagnare molto di più». It has been translated and adapted for an international audience by the Money.it International desk.