Guangxi's Pinglu Canal project received the Green Design International Award and an international contribution award at the opening of the 2026 World Canal Congress in Guilin on October 13, China News Service reported. The Global Times ran experts explaining the canal's green features.
According to Chinese media, the World Green Design Organization presented the awards to the Pinglu Canal project at the opening ceremony of the 2026 World Canal Congress in Guilin, Guangxi, on October 13. The organization is described as a nonprofit founded in 2011 with consultative status at the UN Economic and Social Council, and China News Service called the prize the Oscars of green design.
광고 문의 · 300×250Chinese accounts describe Pinglu as the first nationally coordinated canal linking inland rivers to the sea since the founding of the People's Republic and a backbone project of the Western Land-Sea New Corridor. It officially opened to navigation on September 16. Media called this its first international prize for green ecological design.
Green design features cited
The reports list water-saving ship locks, wildlife migration corridors spanning land and water, a four-step mangrove approach of avoid, protect, transplant and restore, and ecological slope protection. They also say more than 98 percent of excavated earth and rock is reused. These figures come from Chinese media and the project side, and the reports contain no independent verification.
Because the route crosses ecologically sensitive coastal and river areas, the lesson presented is that ecological protection must be built in from the planning stage rather than patched afterward, and should aim to improve the ecology beyond minimum compliance.
Trade and environment questions, and other views
A separate Global Times editorial asks whether the canal will widen ASEAN's trade deficit with China, a sign of interest inside and outside the region in how it may reshape trade patterns. Concrete prospects require checking that editorial and later statistics.
Large canal projects everywhere have drawn debate over marine ecosystems, resident relocation and long-term maintenance costs. The award is one organization's assessment of the design approach, and real environmental impact after opening will have to be judged by long-term monitoring. We will report as such data become public.
