The government of China has built or is building several new ship lifts The Falkirk Wheel A boat lift or lift lock is a machine for transporting boats between two different water heights, and is an alternative to the canal lock and the canal inclined plane. ...

Ship lifts, also called boat lifts or lift locks, are an alternative to canal locks. Unlike a canal lock a ship lift has an entire basin that the vessels enter, then water-tight doors close, and the ship lift raises or lowers the entire basin. A boat lift or lift lock is a machine for transporting boats between two different water heights, and is an alternative to the canal lock and the canal inclined plane. ... Canal locks in England. ...

Three Gorges Ship Lift

The ship lift at the Three Gorges Dam is currently designed to lift vessels of up to 3,000 tons displacement.^[1] The vertical distance traveled will be 113 metres. The Three Gorges Dam (Traditional Chinese: 三峽大壩; Simplified Chinese: 三峡大坝; Hanyu Pinyin: ) spans the Yangtze River (the third longest river in the world) at Sandouping, Yichang, Hubei province, China. ...

The size of the ship lift's basin will be 120x18x3.5 meters.^[2]

The ship lift, when completed, will take 30 to 40 minutes to ascend or descend, as opposed to the three to four hours for stepping through the main locks.^[3][4]

In the original plans the ship lift was going to have the capacity to lift vessels of up to 11,500 tons displacement.^[5]

Other Ship Lifts

The Chinese government has built several other ship lifts, of lesser capacity,^[5]

1. There is a ship lift at the Geheyan dam, in Hubei Province, capable of lifting vessels of 300 tons displacement.^[5] The dam was completed in 1994, but technical difficulties delayed the opening of the ship lift for four more years.
2. There is a ship lift on the Danjiang River, at the Danjiangkou dam, also in Hubei Province, capable of lifting vessels of 450 tons displacement.
3. There will be a ship-lift on the Longtan dam on the Hongshui River, a branch of the Pearl River, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.^[6] The Longtan ship lift has the capacity to lift vessels of 250 tons, in a basin 40×10.8×1.8 meters, and a vertical lift of 68.5 meters.^[7]

Not to be confused with the unrelated province of Hebei Hubei (Chinese: 湖北; pinyin: Húběi; Wade-Giles: Hu-pei, also seen as Hupeh), abbreviated to 鄂 (pinyin: È, WG: O), a province of the Peoples Republic of China, lies to the north of the Dongting Lake, giving it the... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... The Pearl River (珠江 Pinyin: ZhÅ« Jiāng) is Chinas third longest river (2,200 km, after the Yangtze River and the Huang He), and second largest by volume (after the Yangtze). ... Guangxi (Simplified Chinese: 广西; Traditional Chinese: 廣西; pinyin: Guǎngxī; Wade-Giles: Kuang-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Kwangsi) is an autonomous region of the Peoples Republic of China. ...

References

1. ^  Three Gorges Dam
2. ^  Three Gorges shiplift resurfaces, Three Gorges Probe, November 7, 2003
3. ^  China's west seeks to impress investors, BBC, May 4, 2005
4. ^  Ship lift work to begin at Three Gorges site, Three Gorges Probe, March 23, 2005
5. ^ ^a b  Three Gorges Probe, Probe International, June 19, 2000
6. ^  Hongshui River in south China to be dammed in November, China Daily, October 26, 2003
7. ^  PROTOTYPE OBSERVATION STUDY OF YANTAN VERTICAL SHIP LIFT