China on Wednesday opened the Pinglu Canal, providing the country's landlocked southwestern region with a shorter route to the coast and overseas markets, particularly those in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China's largest trading partner.

Constructed at a cost of 72.7 billion yuan (about $10.75 billion), the 134.2-kilometer canal connects Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with the Beibu Gulf, the nearest maritime outlet for much of southwestern China.

The canal forms part of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a strategic route linking China's inland areas with ASEAN and other international markets.

It is the first river-to-sea canal project to have been planned and coordinated at the national level since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

The canal can accommodate vessels weighing up to 5,000 tonnes and cuts more than 560 kilometers from the inland waterway journey between southwestern China and the sea compared with traditional routes through ports in Guangdong Province.

It is expected to lower overall logistics costs by 18 to 30 percent and save more than 5 billion yuan in transportation expenses annually.

Lu Xinning, vice chairperson of the Guangxi regional government, said the canal establishes a new connection between China's market of 1.4 billion people and nearly 700 million consumers in ASEAN.

Its benefits could go beyond transporting goods by encouraging cross-border investment and further integrating regional supply chains, Lu said.

The canal took more than four years to construct. Most of the project involved widening, deepening and straightening existing waterways, while a smaller section was excavated through dry land and mountainous areas.

A major engineering challenge was overcoming a 65-meter difference in water levels, roughly equivalent to the height of a building more than 20 stories tall.

Three navigation hubs, each equipped with twin-line ship locks, were constructed to allow vessels to move between different water levels along the canal.

Environmental protection was also prioritized during the project. More than 98 percent of the approximately 315 million cubic meters of earth and rock excavated during construction was reused.

The canal also features a fish passage extending more than 480 meters and a dedicated wildlife crossing for land animals, including leopard cats and squirrels.

The canal has become operational in the first year of China's 15th Five-Year Plan period, covering 2026-2030, as the world's second-largest economy seeks to promote more balanced regional development and expand high-standard opening up.

These priorities are outlined in the plan.

The new trade route is particularly important for southwestern China, which has historically lagged behind the more prosperous eastern coastal regions and faced higher costs in transporting goods to seaports.

Coal, ore, grain, new-energy materials and auto parts from the region can now be transported more directly to overseas markets.

China's trade with ASEAN surpassed $1 trillion for the first time last year.

During the first seven months of 2026, trade between China and ASEAN reached $744.41 billion, up 24.7 percent year on year and accounting for 21.8 percent of China's total foreign trade during the period.

For Boonsub Panichakarn of the Faculty of Logistics and Digital Supply Chain at Naresuan University in Thailand, the importance of the canal extends beyond the distance it saves.

The canal's significance lies in its potential to reduce logistics costs, time variability and uncertainty throughout the ASEAN-southwestern China supply chain, he said.