On August 9, 2025, as the "Jinchuan No. 6" cargo ship slowly exited the downstream approach channel, the Xiangjiaba Ship Lift witnessed its accumulative cargo volume of over 10 million tons, with more than 23,000 ships safely passing through the Ship Lift. This marks a new milestone in the transportation efficiency of this key shipping hub on the Jinsha River. As the operation and management entity of the Xiangjiaba Ship Lift, CYPC Xiangjiaba Hydropower Plant upholds the culture concept of "Perfection - Responsibility", makes innovations and expands resources, improves quality and efficiency while ensuring the safe and stable operation of the Ship Lift, and continues to expand the functions of the Yangtze River as a "golden waterway".

Taking safety as foundation and safeguarding navigation with craftsmanship. Behind the accumulative cargo volume of more than 10 million tons lies the outstanding record of over 2,300 days of safe operation and maintenance of the Xiangjiaba Ship Lift, which is also a full recognition of the fine management and O&M capabilities of Xiangjiaba Hydropower Plant. The main equipment of the Xiangjiaba Ship Lift has a large size and complex structure, adding great difficulties to its operation and maintenance. In order to ensure the safe and stable operation of the Ship Lift, Xiangjiaba Hydropower Plant has implemented the management principles of "safe, standardized, smooth and efficient", actively carried out real ship trial navigation tests, and continuously improved the navigation scheduling mode. The Plant has also established and improved emergency plans for various unexpected situations, reduced the empty compartment rate of the Ship Lift, and shortened the time for ships to pass through the dam in a single trip, thereby fully leveraging the ship-passing ability of the Ship Lift. The Plant has explored a management mode featuring "integrated operation and maintenance, and fusion of different specialties", optimized the annual planned maintenance arrangement, carried out maintenance and repair in different regions and by different specialties, and strengthened equipment fault diagnosis analysis and defect management. Through these efforts, it effectively shortened the maintenance downtime, improved navigation efficiency, and fully guaranteed the safe and stable operation of the Xiangjiaba Ship Lift.

Technological innovation enabled intelligent navigation. In order to operate and manage this Key National Asset, the Ship Lift Department of Xiangjiaba Hydropower Plant has actively responded to the national innovation-driven development strategy and relied on "Smooth Innovation Studio" to actively carry out researches and tackle difficult problems. The Department has successfully completed the R&D and application of the intelligent navigation management system, achieved the full-process visual tracking of ship passage, automatic arrangement of passage plans, image recording of security checks and paperless visa issuance, and improved the efficiency of ship lift navigation scheduling management. The Department has successfully developed the automatic detection system for the draft and speed of ships passing through the ship lift, raised the draft control limit for ships passing through the ship lift from 2.0 meters to 2.2 meters, significantly increasing the cargo capacity of ships passing through the ship lift, and raising the annual cargo volume by 20%. Up to now, the Department has obtained a total of 146 authorized patents, 3 software copyrights, published 39 papers and 1 monograph, giving full play to the empowering role of technological innovation in the operational efficiency of the ship lift and making breakthroughs in both safety and efficiency.

Reducing costs and increasing efficiency to benefit shipping. The Xiangjiaba Ship Lift runs like a giant "elevator in the sky" specially installed for ship navigation. With the help of the Ship Lift, a thousand-ton cargo ship can "fly over" the 100 m-wide Jinsha River within about 40 minutes, successfully breaking with centuries of historical navigation constraints. Since its official trial operation in May 2018, the Ship Lift has completed the annual designed freight capacity target of 1.12 million tons in advance for five consecutive years, becoming a "logistics artery" that supports the efficient operation of regional industrial and supply chains. In December 2024, the Ship Lift started a 24-hour operation mode, achieving day and night passage from Xiangjiaba section of the Jinsha River to the trunk line section of the Yangtze River. The average daily operation capacity has increased from 12 compartments to 22 compartments, as a result, the average daily cargo volume has increased by more than 6000 tons, further promoting the green transformation of transportation structure and injecting strong momentum into the high-quality development of regional economy.

Facing the future, Xiangjiaba Hydropower Plant will keep full enthusiasm and take firm steps to promote the operation and management of the Ship Lift with higher standards and premium quality, thereby giving full play to the navigation benefits of the Ship Lift, and providing solid support for the growth of shipping on the Jinsha River.