China Just Built a Canal Longer Than Panama — Even Americans Can't Believe It

China just opened a new canal longer than the Panama Canal, and it took only four years to build. 🚢🇨🇳 On September 16, 2026, the Pinglu Canal officially opened in southern China. It runs 134 km (83 miles) from the river system near Nanning straight to the sea at the Beibu Gulf. Building it meant digging out roughly three times as much earth and rock as the Three Gorges Dam. Its giant "water elevator" locks lift 5,000-ton ships nearly 10 stories, and on opening day China announced it had set four world records. 🏗️🌊 The United States took ten years to finish the Panama Canal. China built this in four. ⏱️ In this documentary, we explore: 🗺️ Why China's southwest needed a new route to the sea 📜 The 2,000-year-old canal built in the same region ⏱️ How it compares to the Panama, Suez and Erie Canals ⛰️ Moving 300+ million cubic meters of earth and rock 🛗 The record-breaking water elevators at the Madao hub 💧 The locks that recycle around 60% of their water 💰 The $10 billion price tag and the shortcut to Southeast Asia 🤔 Game changer or white elephant? Is the Pinglu Canal a game changer for trade in Asia, or a $10 billion gamble? Tell us in the comments! 👇 📍 And let us know where in the world you're watching from. 🔔 Subscribe to Hidden World Docs for more documentaries on the world's most extraordinary megaprojects. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⚠️ DISCLAIMER 🎬 Some visuals in this video are AI-generated or digitally created for illustration and storytelling. They may not show the actual locations, structures, or events exactly as they are. 📊 Facts and figures such as length, cost, excavation volume and world records come from publicly available reports and official announcements. Future cargo and savings figures are projections and may change. 📚 This video is made for educational and informational purposes only. We aim for accuracy, but we recommend checking official sources for the latest updates. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #China #Megaprojects #Engineering Music From #InAudio: https://inaudio.org/ Name:- Lorien https://youtu.be/KPIYryxHQZI?si=k8cj9pm-MKld-Y-Z