The Three Gorges Dam Ship Locks
The Ship Lock, together with the dam itself, belongs to part of the whole dam project, playing the key factor on navigation. Presently, with the improvement of the Yangtze Cruise tourism, the ship lock is becoming one of the attractions along the Yangtze River.
In 2025, the Century Legend cruise, featuring extended journeys of 11 to 12 days between Chongqing and Shanghai, is the sole option for travelers seeking to experience transit through the Three Gorges Dam’s five-level ship locks.
Introduce the Ship Locks
Among the reasons to build the Three Gorges Dam, one is to improve the navigation capacity. The ship locks are contributed mostly in this part. After the installation of ship locks, the river shipping increased and shipping becomes much safer.
Due to the construction of the dam, ships must be lifted or lowered about 100 meters. Because of this height, the water pressure required for a single lock would be too much for one gate to withstand. Instead, the dam uses two locks, each with five gates to raise or lower the vessel about 20 meters.
The two ship locks installed along the two sides of the dam with a total length of 1607 meters. And each gate of lock is 280 meters long and 34 wide. The Maximum vessel size is 10,000 tons, increased six times and reduced the cost of shipping by 25%, compared with the previous years.
Ship Lock Overlook
The Theory of Shipping
There is a little difference between the downstream and upstream shipping. One is release water, the other is store water.
Downstream (from Chongqing to Yichang/Shanghai): the fifth gate is first open and release water to the same level of the fourth one. Then the fourth gate opens and the ship comes to the fourth gate. With the same theory, the ship can cross all gates.
Upstream (from Shanghai/Yichang to Chongqing): ship comes to the first gate and store water to the same level of the second gate. Then open the second gate and ship goes in. Follow the step, the ship can cross all gates.
Gates open when ship passing through
Tourists’ Experience along the way
Whether taking Yangtze Cruise from downstream or upstream, the Three Gorges Dam is must see and the ship lock is the essential part to visit when ship cross the dam. If you are interested about how the ship lock and gates function, why not to take some time to view the process and gain more unique experience.
| Cruise Route | Time to cross Ship Lock | Duration | Overall Feelings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upstream | In the late afternoon | 3-4 hours | The whole shipping is quite steady, and doesn’t bother tourists to view the scenery at all. Meanwhile, tourists can see the how ship locks works clearly. |
| Downstream | In the evening | 3-4 hours | Stay in your cabin, you can hardly feel any shaking when passing through the gates, so don’t worry about your sleeping or other onboard activities. |
Cruises enter the Ship Lock
View the Ship Lock
More Yangtze River Cruise Shore Excursions
- Three Gorges
- Three Gorges Dam Site
- Fengdu Ghost City
- Shibaozhai Pagoda
- White Emperor City
- Tribe of Three Gorges
- Lesser Three Gorges
- Shennong Stream
- Ship Lift
- Shennv Stream
- Baiheliang Museum
- 816 Nuclear Project
- Quyuan Temple
- Mini Three Gorges
- Mount Jiuhua
- War Fire of Three Kingdoms
- Return to The Three Gorges
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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.
Thank you for the question. The Three Gorges Dam Ships Lift is constructed near the Three Gorges Dam Project in the Three Gorges Dam Scenic Area, however, there is no detailed address of it. And according to the Google Map, the address is at Yiling, Yichang, Hubei, China. If you want to have a closer visit of the ship lift, we recommend you take a Yangtze River cruise which would take you to visit the Three Gorges Dam for excursion tour with comfortable arranged bus during the cruise, and the local guide would give you great introduction of this project and the scenic area. Moreover, some cruise ships even offer the chance to experience the ship lift. If you are interested in that, please feel free to tell us about your nationality, Email address, group size, traveling time to China and other information, and then, our professional travel consultant would give high-grade service for you at good price.
Wish you a nice day!
