China's Navigable Waterways Overview
China has more than 140,000 kilometers of navigable waterways. The distribution of waterways is chiefly within central and South China, except for a few navigable streams in the Northeast. In 2003 these inland waterways carried nearly 1.6 trillion tons of freight and 6.3 trillion passengers to more than 5,100 inland ports.
The Grand Canal and the Yangtze River
The Grand Canal
The Grand Canal, known to the Chinese as the Jing–Hang Grand Canal, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the world’s longest artificial waterway. Some of its sections follow the natural course of a river, while other parts are hand-dug. The Grand Canal is one of the oldest and longest canals in the world, at 1,794 km and serves 17 cities between Beijing and Hangzhou. It links five major rivers. Along with the Great Wall and the karez, it is also known as one of the three great projects of ancient China, and the southern portion still remains in heavy use to the present day.
It is a great project created by the working people in ancient China and one of the symbols of China’s cultural status. Work on the canal began as early as the 4th century BC and was completed by the end of the 13th century AD. It forms a north-south link of communications and transport between the most densely populated areas in China. It has allowed faster trading and promoted the economic growth of China.
The Yangtze River
As the most important artery in China’s waterway network, the Yangtze River originates from the “roof of the world”—the southwest of the Guerra Danon Peak, in the Tanggula Mountains of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It has been considered the mother river of China. The main stream flows through 11 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.
The Yangtze River pours into the East China sea from the east of Chongming Island. The total length is more than 6,300 km, 800 km longer than the Yellow River. It is the longest river in Asia, and the third longest river in the world after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon in South America. The Yangtze River is unique because it flows entirely within China. It is also the sixth-largest river by discharge volume in the world. It covers an area of 1.8 million km2, accounting for about one-fifth of the total land area of China. Most of the Huai River flows into the Yangtze River through the Grand Canal. The Yangtze plays a large role in the history, culture and economy of China. The prosperous Yangtze River Delta generates as much as 20% of the PRC’s GDP.
China's Thriving Port System
Major Ports
Thanks to the population and booming trade in China, seven of the world’s top 10 ports were located in China in 2016. As the world’s largest trading nation, China is home to nearly a quarter of the trade around the globe, which means trillions of dollars of goods come in and out of the country every year. Ports play an irreplaceable role in completing large amounts of exchanges of goods.
China has 34 major ports and more than 2000 minor ports. The former are mostly sea ports opening up to the Yellow Sea, Taiwan Straits, Pearl River and South China Sea while the latter comprise ports that lie along the major and minor rivers of China. Most of China’s major cities are also ports or are facilitated by a port nearby.
At the end of 2004, China’s coastal ports had over 2,500 berths of medium size or above, of which 650 were 10,000-ton-class berths; their handling capacity was 61.5 million standard containers for the year, ranking first in the world. Freight volumes handled by some large ports exceed 100 million tons a year; and Shanghai, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo and Dalian have been listed among the world’s top 50 container ports.
Shanghai Yangshan Deep Water Port: the Busiest Port in the World
Yangshan Deep Water Port in Shanghai is the busiest port in the world, with nearly 45, 000 containers moving around every day. In 2015, the port area handled an average of more than a dozen ocean-going vessels per day. It is like a chain running from north to south. In 2015, the Chinese traded 3.6 billion tons of goods with the world through the port chain, enough to fill up freighters as many as 36,000 aircraft carriers. Among them, the port of Shanghai has been ranked first in the world for six consecutive years.
Three World-Class Ports Right Next to Each Other
At the southern end of China’s port chain, we can see an interesting phenomenon, where the ports of Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou are closely together. All three ports are among the world’s top 10 container ports, accounting for more than a quarter of the total throughput in China. The Pearl River Delta is the most developed manufacturing area after China’s reform and opening-up. Three of the world’s great ports are kept busy on account of the millions of factories in the Pearl River Delta.
