If completed, the Xianggui Canal would enable China to create a vast network of waterways – known as the “Han-Xiang-Gui corridor” – stretching 3,200km from north to south across four provinces: namely, Shaanxi, Hubei, Hunan and Guangxi.

The fate of the project remains uncertain, as constructing the Xianggui Canal would be staggeringly expensive. At an estimated 150 billion yuan (US$21.6 billion), it would be more than twice as expensive as the Pinglu Canal.

But the imminent opening of the new waterway in Guangxi has increased its chances of moving forward, as the “time is ripe” for such a project, said Lu Yi, a professor at the School of Transportation at Changsha University of Science and Technology.