The Goupitan shiplift is a boat lifting system on the Wu River, a tributary of the Yangtze River in Guizhou Province, southwest of China. A system of three boat lifts supplements the Goupitan Dam in order to provide shipping along the river.

The designed capacity of the system is 2.928 million tons of cargo per year. It allows ships with a displacement of up to 500 tons to pass, lifting them to a height of 199 m. The construction of the boat lifting system was carried out after the completion of the power plant, it was completed in 2021.

Dams are characterized by a drastic change in water levels and that makes navigating large waterways a daunting task. Luckily, advanced technology makes things a lot easier, and the Goupitan shiplift incorporated into the Goupitan Hydropower Station is a perfect example. Completed in 2021, it consists of three different hydraulic lifts connected by navigable water channels with a total distance of 2.3 kilometers. Located on the Wu River, a tributary of the Yangtze River in Guizhou, the Goupitan shiplift is one of the world’s most intriguing technological marvels, one that makes shipping along the waterway so much easier.

According to the internet