A bird's-eye view of the Babao Ship Lock, the largest of its kind on the Qiantang River. [Photo/hangzhou.com.cn]

The opening of the second channel has resolved a crucial bottleneck in the provincial inland waterway network for thousand-tonnage ships.

Unlike the old canal, the new channel runs south from the Hangzhou-Shanghai Railway Line, along the borders of Linping with Tongxiang, Haining, and Qiantang. It leads directly to the Babao Ship Lock, with a total length of 26.4 kilometers. After the opening, thousand-tonnage ships can sail directly from Shandong province to Hangzhou, bypassing the city center and entering the Qiantang River.