On August 5, the ship lock at the Yanzhou Hub of the Shimen-Lixian Waterway completed its trial run successfully. (Photo/Li Jie, Hunan Daily)
The ship lock at the Yanzhou Hub of the Shimen-Lixian Waterway, part of the Lishui River Waterway, completed its trial run on August 5, 2025. This marked that the Shimen-Lixian Waterway, a major water transport artery in northwestern Hunan Province, has accelerated construction to reach full completion.
The test vessel set sail from the downstream ship lock at the Lishui Yanzhou Hub, proceeding upstream along the waterway. It passed through the lock safely and docked smoothly at the upstream working pier of the Lishui Yanzhou Hub. The water depth along the entire waterway remained stable at two meters above. The newly-installed waterway markers, bridge markers, buoys, and water gauges were functioning normally.
The Shimen-Lixian Waterway Construction Project commenced construction in February 2022. It is a key water transport construction project under the Ministry of Transport and Hunan Province during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. The project is currently the largest water transport construction project under construction in Hunan Province, with a total investment of 3.692 billion CNY. As a key control part of the project, the Yanzhou Hub Ship Lock has an estimated investment of 1.26 billion CNY. It involves the building of a new 2,000-tonne-class lock with an annual one-way throughput capacity of 24.2 million tonnes, representing an increase of over 480 times compared to the previous capacity.
"Once the ship lock at Yanzhou Hub of the Shimen-Lixian Waterway opens to traffic, agricultural products, minerals, and construction materials from Shimen, Linli, and Lixian can be transported along the Lishui Waterway into the Dongting Lake and then reach the sea. This will be a 'golden waterway' in the northwest regions of Hunan Province," said Zhou Qin, project manager from the Water Transport Investment Company of Hunan Port Shipping & Water Resources Group Co., Ltd. The manager introduced that water transport offers advantages such as high capacity and low costs. The unit price (per tonne-kilometer) for water transport is approximately one-fifth that of road transport and one-third that of rail transport. Upon completion, the project is expected to save over 200 million CNY of logistics costs for local enterprises annually. Once all the ports along the route are fully operational, the annual logistics cost savings for enterprises are projected to exceed 800 million CNY.
The dredging engineering for the Shimen-Lixian Waterway is progressing vigorously, which is expected to be completed and open to traffic by the end of 2026. Upon completion, the capacity of Shimen-Lixian Waterway will be upgraded from 300-tonne to 1,000-tonne level, extending from Jinjitan in Lixian County to the Zihard Industrial Park in Shimen County. The upgraded waterway will stimulate the development of mineral, building materials, and agricultural product processing industries along the route. The waterway will also play a significant role in improving Hunan Province's "One River, One Lake, and Four Rivers" waterway network, facilitating Hunan's integration into the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and promoting the socio-economic development of the inland regions.
This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.
Translator: Yu Jiangjiang
Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn
