Image for representation purposes only China is building the world’s largest inland ship locks at the Three Gorges Dam to eliminate hipping bottlenecks at the Yangtze River. Covering almost a decade, the ambitious project is the biggest infrastructure expansion on Asia’s longest waterway since it was dammed in 1997. The new ship locks would enable the river to accommodate larger ships and streamline logistics operations. The project has been included in China’s 15th five-year plan (2026–2030), which aims to transform the Yangtze River into a busy shipping corridor and enhance connectivity among China’s manufacturing and industrial hubs to boost economic growth. This was a necessary step, as Ministry of Transport officials claimed that the present ship locks and existing infrastructure are insufficient to handle the massive surge in shipping traffic since the locks were built in 2003. The older ship locks and lifts have become severely congested as planners in the early 2000s did not anticipate the rise in shipping demand in the coming decades. However, since it was built, the Three Gorges Dam has improved navigation conditions, driving the growth of major industrial cities and hubs along the 6500 km long waterway vital for China’s progress. There has been a massive surge in shipping volumes across critical nodes along the Yangtze, such as in the Chongqing, Wuhan in central China, and coastal centres Nanjing and Shanghai The new multi-billion dollar upgrade will ensure that the Yangtze can support the booming industrial and manufacturing sector of these interconnected economic centres for many years.