China Opens Major Canal Linking Inland Regions To Sea

China opened a major canal on Wednesday 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 134-kilometre (83-mile) 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 560 kilometres, state news agency said. 

The canal will also reduce transport costs by 18 to 30 percent, and generate annual savings of more than five billion yuan ($745 million) in the sector, it added.