China plans to build a $10.5 billion, 135-kilometer canal in the Guangxi Autonomous Region, which borders Vietnam. The Pinglu Canal, China's first since 1949, will run between two major rivers and is designed to connect the inland provinces to the Beibu Gulf, and from there to the Southeast Asian market.

The project starts from the Pingtang River Estuary of Xijin Reservoir in Hengzhou City, Nanning City. About 20 kilometers of artificial pure excavation is connected to the Qinjiang River section in Luwu Town, Qinzhou City, and the Qinjiang River is widened to go out to sea. Expected to be completed in early 2027, it will become part of a land-sea corridor designed to stimulate economic growth in China's southwestern provinces that lag behind the coast.

Guangxi's GDP is one-fifth that of neighboring Guangdong, and less than one-sixth of the western province of Guizhou. According to Chen Hongqi, Secretary of the Party Group of the Guangxi Department of Transportation, in the past, shipping through the provincial capital Nanning reached the sea via the Xijiang and Pearl Rivers. The new canal route will shorten the route by 560 kilometers, reducing annual transport costs by a significant amount.Editor/XingWentao