BEIJING: China opened a major canal on Wednesday (Sep 16) that will provide landlocked areas with direct access to the sea, state media said, reducing transport times and costs as the country aims to bolster trade ties with regional neighbours.
The 134km Pinglu Canal took four years to build and links Nanning, in the southern manufacturing region of Guangxi, to the Gulf of Tonkin, flanked by China and Vietnam.
Goods from southwestern China previously had to be transported to the southern metropolis of Guangzhou in order to reach the sea, but the new canal will cut the journey by more than 560km, state news agency Xinhua said.
The canal will also reduce transport costs by 18 to 30 per cent, and generate annual savings of more than five billion yuan (US$745 million) in the sector, it added.
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