Northern Gulf tides surge, the momentum towards the sea is strong. On May 17, the media team of the "Kickoff Year Viewing China: Sharing This Magnificent Guangxi" online thematic publicity campaign entered Qinzhou, Guangxi. At the land-sea intersection connecting the interior and the outside world, they observed how the vast land of Guangxi is transitioning from being "coastal" to "prospering from the sea."
Currently, guided by the New Western Land-Sea Corridor, Guangxi is promoting the coordinated development of corridors, hubs, and industries. As a key node, Qinzhou is forming a powerful synergy of river-sea connectivity, industrial agglomeration, and intelligent empowerment. The Pinglu Canal outlines a new blueprint for river-sea combined transport; the Qinzhou Petrochemical Industrial Park strengthens the hard support for port-side industries; the automated container terminal activates new momentum for digital and intelligent logistics... These three elements work in concert to serve national strategies and promote the open connectivity of domestic and international markets.
**Pinglu Canal: River-Sea Connectivity, Linking Inside and Out** 65 meters—this is the elevation difference between the water surface of the Xijin Reservoir area at the starting point of the Pinglu Canal and the sea level at Qinzhou Port, the canal's estuary. To ensure continuous navigation for vessels, the Pinglu Canal project has constructed three step-level hubs at Madao, Qishi, and Qingnian. Adjusting the water level in the lock chambers by filling or draining water is the most challenging part of the construction. On May 16, good news came from the project: the construction team successfully connected the lock gate to the hydraulic hoist at the Madao Hub, marking the completion of all metal structure installations for the three major shipping hubs of the Pinglu Canal.
Since its commencement in 2022, Guangxi has consistently advanced the Pinglu Canal construction with high standards and quality, striving to create a premium, green, and clean project. "The Pinglu Canal has achieved three 'world's bests'—the largest under-construction inland water-saving ship lock, the highest water head, and the fastest-operating water-saving ship lock," said Li Mingjing, Deputy Party Secretary, Vice Chairman, and General Manager of Guangxi Pinglu Canal Construction Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the Pinglu Canal Group.
The majestic posture of this century-old canal is already visible, with full efforts being made to achieve navigation within the year. As a backbone project of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor, this will be the shortest, most convenient, and most efficient water transport route from Guangxi, and even from southwestern and central-southern China to ASEAN.
With one canal open, the entire situation becomes invigorated. "By then, 5,000-ton vessels can achieve direct river-sea transport, shortening the sea route for goods from southwestern China by approximately 560 kilometers. It is estimated to save over 5.2 billion yuan in transportation costs annually for regions along the New Western Land-Sea Corridor," Li Mingjing said.
This "golden waterway" flows not only with "waters of openness" but also surges with "streams of data." At the Pinglu Canal Construction Dispatch Command Center, the "Digital Twin Smart Canal" system operates efficiently, mapping the project's progress and construction dynamics in real time. This "smart canal," built by the Pinglu Canal construction management team using new-generation information technologies such as BeiDou, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, enables the digital twin and the physical project to grow together.
"This is the canal's 'smart brain,' capable of conducting data analysis, intelligent early warning, automated monitoring, and knowledge base support around the clock, using precise decision-making to reduce human intervention and management blind spots," Li Mingjing explained. Artificial intelligence technology is shaping a new model for canal management, with Chinese "smart manufacturing" injecting strong momentum into building a new development pattern.
**Qinzhou Port: Digital and Intelligent Power, Activating Momentum** The Port of Beibu Gulf is the international seaport for the New Western Land-Sea Corridor and an important gateway port for China facing ASEAN, requiring high capabilities in river-rail-sea multimodal transport and automation levels. Located within the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone, the Qinzhou Port of Beibu Gulf is the nation's first automated container terminal for sea-rail combined transport. With its globally pioneering U-shaped process, it increases the operation point density of Intelligent Guided Vehicles (IGVs) by 50% and reduces equipment movement distance by 35%.
Along the long coastline, multiple large container berths are lined up, with blue-steel giant arms of quay cranes extending into the air. Dual trolleys synchronously engage, precisely lifting containers weighing tens of tons to complete ship-to-shore handovers. Not far away, the China Railway United Container Qinzhou Central Station is a landmark project breaking the bottleneck of the "last mile" in sea-rail combined transport.
"Goods containers from western regions like Sichuan and Chongqing can be efficiently transferred through the terminal's automated equipment, achieving seamless connectivity in sea-rail combined transport—'off the train and onto the ship, off the ship and onto the train'—to be shipped worldwide," explained Lu Haihong, Duty Manager of the Operations Department at Honggang Terminal in the Guangxi Qinzhou Bonded Port Area.
From January to February this year, 1,556 sea-rail combined transport trains operated on the New Western Land-Sea Corridor, with container volume increasing by 23.8% year-on-year. Behind this, numerous institutional innovation achievements have received national-level recognition: the "Reform of Container Cross-Border Logistics 'Full Lifecycle' Management Services" was selected as one of the fifth batch of "Best Practice Cases" by the Ministry of Commerce for pilot free trade zones, and the "Integrated Reform of Container Sea-Rail Combined Transport Yards" was selected as a typical case by the Ministry of Transport and other national ministries and commissions. The effectiveness of reforms and innovations continues to transform into powerful momentum for high-level opening-up and high-quality development.
With the sea breeze gently blowing, in this natural deep-water harbor, ten-thousand-ton giants come and go in an endless stream, presenting a scene of bustling activity.
**Petrochemical Industry: Strengthening and Supplementing the Chain, Prospering Towards the Sea** On the shores of the Beibu Gulf, a modern port-side petrochemical industrial base characterized by "high-end, intelligent, and green" features has already risen. PetroChina Guangxi Petrochemical Company settled in Qinzhou as early as 2006, growing together with this harbor. Wu Xiaopeng, Deputy Director of the Party-Mass Work Department of the company, introduced: "Relying on cutting-edge technology and fully automated production lines, we have built a comprehensive industrial chain covering refining and chemical processing, casting a solid industrial hard support for serving national strategies and regional development."
Guangxi Petrochemical currently has a primary crude oil processing capacity of 10 million tons per year. Zhou Jingxi, an operator in the company's Refining Department Three, gave a vivid analogy—the gasoline and diesel produced per minute can fill up 246 family cars, and the aviation kerosene produced every hour can fill up 10 Boeing aircraft.
To promote the transformation and upgrading of the local petrochemical industry from basic refining to high-end chemical new materials, Guangxi Petrochemical has newly built a 1.2 million tons per year ethylene and downstream unit. High-end products such as film-grade and pipe-grade materials produced by this unit will directly fill domestic supply gaps, effectively alleviating the long-standing structural contradiction in China's petrochemical industry of "more oil, less chemicals, insufficient high-end," with multiple technologies reaching domestic leading and world-class levels.
Looking across the Qinzhou Port Economic and Technological Development Zone, silver-white oil storage tanks are neatly arranged, with vehicles shuttling back and forth, busy yet orderly. "After the Pinglu Canal opens, our products can better target the ASEAN market," Wu Xiaopeng anticipates. As the canal connects rivers and seas, this "golden waterway" will provide enterprises with more diversified development directions and broader market channels, helping port-side industries truly embark on a new journey of "prospering towards the sea."