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The Three Gorges Dam Ship Locks

Three Gorges Ship Locks

The construction of Three Gorges Ship Locks is intended to increase river shipping from ten million to 100 million tons annually, with transportation costs cut by 30% to 37%.

Since the installation of the ship locks, shipping through the Three Gorges become much safer, which changed the fact that the gorges were notoriously dangerous to navigate. Each of the two ship locks is made up of five stages, taking around four hours in total to transit, and has a vessel capacity of 10,000 tons.

  • Yangtze Three Gorges Ship Lock

    Yangtze Three Gorges Ship Lock

  • Yangtze Three Gorges Dam Ship Lock

    Yangtze Three Gorges Dam Ship Lock

The locks are 280 meters long, 35 meters wide, and 5 meters deep, which are 30 meters longer than those on the St Lawrence Seaway but half as deep.

Before the dam was constructed, the maximum freight capacity of the river at the Three Gorges was only 18 million tons every year, but a total of 198 million tons of freight per year pass through the Three Gorges Dam ship locks presently.

The freight capacity of the river increased six times and the cost of shipping was reduced by 25%, compared with the previous years.

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Questions & Discussions

Following are latest questions and answers from our webusers and customers. You can learn many useful information from the discussion and cases. You can also join in the discussions or ask your own question. Our experts will help you ASAP.

Yangtze River Lock, how many rivers does this support
Yangtze River Lock, how many rivers does this support
2018-05-05 23:56
Good morning Ron,

I am a little confused about your question and what does “how many rivers does this support” mean? Besides, in the year of 2018, there is only one ship called Yangtze 1 Cruise sailing through Three Gorges Dam Five-stage Ship Lock that travelers can witness this huge project in a very close distance. Other ships should board at Maoping Port (located west side of Three Gorges Dam) and offer chance to pass through Ship Lift.

For more questions and ship booking, please feel free to let us know. Have a great day!
Ooops wrong date.
Sorry I did get the dates wrong. We are traveling upstream from Yichang to Chongqing on 27th October.
2017-09-30 00:53
Hi Jane,

No problem. If you are traveling on Victoria Anna from Yichang to Chongqing, you would go through the five-stages Three Gorges Dam ship locks as listed in the itinerary during the afternoon period of Day 2. And also, we will update the information of the itinerary as soon as possible if there is any news of its change.

Wish you a wonderful journey in China!
Are the cruise boats going through the locks at the moment? We are booked on Victoria Anna 24th October.
Will we be going through the lock or elevator or getting bused around?
2017-09-29 23:19
Hi Jane,

Thank you for the good question. Till now, we have not received the news of the reopening of the Three Gorges Dam ship lift, therefore, Victoria Anna still goes through the five-stages Three Gorges Dam ship locks as listed in the itinerary on the night of Day 3 of your Chongqing to Yichang cruise on October 24th. If there is any news about the change of the itinerary, we would update the information on our website in time.

Have a nice trip on Victoria Anna!
height of locks
What is the drop in water level from the top lock to the bottom ?
2017-06-20 03:10
Hello David,

Thank you for the good question. The Three Gorges Dam Ship Locks is made up of five stages. And it has a total drop of 113 meters equaling to the height of a 40-story building, which broken the world Guinness Book of Record. If you are interested in experiencing the height of the five-stage ship lock, you can tell us your ideal travelling time, group size, nationality, and our professional Travel Consultant can select a suitable ship with nice price for your Yangtze River cruise.

Have a nice day!

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