With a history of more than 2,500 years and nearly 3,200 kilometers of meandering, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has provided a strong guarantee for the material life of generations of Chinese children.
The 1,000-ton cargo ship entered the second channel of the Hangzhou section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal and sailed to the Qiantang River Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Yu
In 2023, the freight volume of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal will exceed 800 million tons, ranking third in the world's inland water transport. Among them, the cargo volume of the northern Jiangsu section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal reached a new high, reaching 350 million tons, and the freight volume exceeded 300 million tons for eight consecutive years. Today, the northern section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal is the busiest inland waterway in the world, with outstanding economic benefits, saving more than 24 billion yuan a year in transportation costs compared with road transportation.
The maximum tonnage of the northern section of the canal is 2,000 tons. The Danjiangkou Reservoir of the Hanjiang River can be traded to Wuhan with 2,000 tons. With a small investment, a large ship of 5,000 tons will be navigated.
The distance from the Danjiang Estuary to the Yellow River is 400~500 kilometers. According to the investment of 1 billion per kilometer. It requires an investment of 4000~500 billion. The investment in the Pinglu Canal is 500 million yuan per kilometer, and the waterway is also 5,000 tons.
The construction of the canal from Danjiangkou to the Yellow River has the same maximum tonnage as the canal in the northern section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which is 2,000 tons. Then the annual freight volume exceeds 400 million tons, we assume that the annual cargo transportation is 4 to 800 million tons, and the construction cost is 25 yuan per ton of goods, and the charging period is 30 years, and the income can be 3000 to 600 billion.
The water diversion capacity of the canal is twice that of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, with an annual design of 26 billion yuan and a maximum of 30 billion yuan. Among them, 25 billion cubic meters will be charged for water, and 0.4 yuan per cubic meter will be charged, and 300 billion yuan can be charged for 30 years in 30 years.
The actual water fee is paid by the users of irrigation water in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, and the water used in the lower reaches of the Yellow River is only used as a replacement for the people in the lower reaches of the Yellow River.
In this way, we will receive at least more than 600 to 900 billion yuan in revenue from the construction of the canal.
The underlying idea behind the design of such a canal is how solar energy can efficiently serve human production and life.
The water on the surface and in the ocean absorbs a large amount of solar energy to form a water cycle, and its total energy is 2,000 times that of the current human energy once a year. How to obtain great energy in the water cycle is a completely new topic of scientific research.
From the production and life of people, what industry is the most water-consuming? What is the biggest water demand?
The Yangtze River Economic Belt, covering 11 provinces and cities including Sichuan, Hubei and Shanghai, has a total area of about 2,052,300 square kilometers, accounting for 21.4% of the country, and its population and GDP are more than 40% of the country.
In 23 years, the cargo throughput of the Yangtze River trunk line reached 3.88 billion tons. The total amount of goods transported in the country is 55.7 billion tons, of which 3.911 billion tons are transported by rail.
From the above data, we can see that the freight volume of the Yangtze River trunk line in 2023 is basically the same as that of the entire railway.
What's more, six of China's top 10 cities by GDP are along the Yangtze River.
This shows the fact that the Yangtze River is the best way to serve the people's production and life.
The Yangtze River has three maximum values: irrigation, power generation and shipping.
Among them, the water consumption of shipping is huge, and nearly one trillion cubic meters of water resources in the Yangtze River are used for shipping every year. It also creates the most value.
The low cost of shipping allows things to gather wealth.
What is the real investment in the construction of the canal from the Han River to the Yellow River?
According to the current data, from the highest water surface of the Danjiang Estuary to the altitude of 140~135 meters above sea level to the altitude of 65 meters above sea level of the Yellow River. The distance of the canal is less than 450 km. The annual water diversion is 260~30 billion tons, and the navigable capacity is 2,000 tons from the Hanjiang River to the Yanshan Reservoir, and the 5,000-ton canal from the Yanshan Reservoir to the Yellow River.
The investment is conservatively estimated at 250 billion yuan, and the key to low-cost construction is how to make full use of hydroelectric potential energy. And in dry years, 15 billion cubic meters of water resources will be pumped from the Three Gorges by pumped storage, so as to meet the 23.3 billion cubic meters of storage capacity in the driest year in the history of the Danjiang Estuary, and the canal and the south-to-north water diversion project are still operating normally.
Diagram of the water diversion route from the Three Gorges to the Danjiang Estuary
Route description: The water level of the Three Gorges Dam is 175 meters. The water intake of the Danjiangkou Canal is up to 140~135 meters.
The difference between the two is 35 meters, and the water transfer distance is 200 kilometers. The whole process is artesian, and the Nanhe hydropower station is maintained at a high level in dry years, which can ensure that the pumped storage efficiency is the highest, and the pumping efficiency is theoretically greater than 70%.
Water diversion elevation map
The design creates a feasible route to divert water from the Three Gorges Reservoir to the Yellow River, even in non-dry years.