China's Pinglu Canal opens
China opened its first modern river-to-sea canal, the 134km Pinglu Canal in the southern region of Guangxi, on September 16, linking the Xijiang River to the Beibu Gulf (China's name for the Gulf of Tonkin) and cutting roughly 560km off the shipping route between China's inland southwest and Southeast Asia. Built at a cost of about 72.7 billion yuan ($10.8 billion) and able to handle vessels up to 5,000 tonnes, the canal is projected by Guangxi officials to lower logistics costs by 18-30% and save more than 5 billion yuan (roughly $700 million) a year; container traffic at Beibu Gulf Port has already grown more than fourfold since 2017. The project sits within Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative and reflects China's push to diversify trade routes away from vulnerable chokepoints such as the Strait of Hormuz, linking inland hubs like Chongqing and Chengdu to Southeast Asian markets that traded roughly $640 billion with China in the first half of 2026, up 18.2% year-on-year.
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As it ran
18 September 2026
- Can the new Pinglu Canal become China’s Yangtze of the southwest? South China Morning Post
- China opens Pinglu Canal; Hong Kong unveils first 5-year plan: 7 highlights South China Morning Post
16 September 2026
- Developing | China launches Pinglu Canal, slashing transit time to Southeast Asia South China Morning Post
- China launches Pinglu Canal, slashing transit time to Southeast Asia South China Morning Post
- What’s the Pinglu Canal, China’s new gateway to Southeast Asia? Al Jazeera