View the canal from the water, witness Guangxi's new maritime development.

This is my first time coming to Guangxi. Before departing, my imagination of this place was mostly centered around Guilin's landscape, melodious mountain songs, and the expansive karst peaks. Following the "Water Transportation in China—Seeing Guangxi from the Water" interview and research group along the Pinglu Canal, I deeply felt that Guangxi not only has picturesque scenery but also possesses the grandeur of connecting rivers to seas.

Since the Pinglu Canal opened to navigation, waterway tours have been steadily heating up. The related routes at Qinzhou's waterside service area pier have already run 199 voyages, with a cumulative reception of over 24,000 tourists. At the fueling station at the service area pier, staff introduced: "Every boat ride has been fully booked. Since the canal opened, we have already refueled the cruise ships with 255 tons of diesel and 66.5 tons of liquefied natural gas."

Drifting down the river, the river breeze comes right at you. Buildings and green trees on the shore retreat one by one, while lighthouses, fishing boats, and cargo ships travel past your view. Inside the cabin, there are elderly people speaking in various regional accents, young people holding up their phones to take pictures, and children leaning by the windows to look out in all directions.

For first-time visitors, the Pinglu Canal is an awe-inspiring engineering project; for many people from Guangxi, it is a long-awaited dream come true, a new route connecting their hometown to the sea.

The shoreline here is clean and neatly arranged. Floating downstream, the banks are free from dense commercial facilities blocking the view, maintaining a natural connection between the water surface and the banks. Piers, lighthouses, and shipyards are scattered along the way. Tin houses marked with "demolition", fishermen tidying their gear, a few solitary trees by the banks, and anglers are scattered here and there. This place lacks deliberately carved landscapes and the noisy commercial atmosphere, making the updated shoreline clear and unrestricted.

The closer you get to the estuary, the greener it becomes. Low mangroves intermingle with tall willow trees, together weaving a vibrant ecological shoreline. A few egrets glide over the water, at times stopping by shallow shoals, and at times hiding among the woods, adding charm and liveliness to the tranquil shoreline.

The cleanliness of the shoreline not only means visual transparency but also symbolizes how the Pinglu Canal, while opening passages for navigation, reserves enough space for natural ecosystems and life along the banks. The docks here are busy, yet you hardly see bustling crowds. Entering the automated container terminal at Beibu Gulf port in Qinzhou, quayside cranes operate in an orderly way, intelligent guided transport vehicles shuttle back and forth, and containers are swiftly transferred between storage yards and berths. In this vast operation area, there are only a handful of workers, as most operations are performed remotely in a control room. Seated before screens, operators simply click their mouse and move control levers to simultaneously command multiple pieces of equipment and complete accurate loading and unloading.

Currently, the Qinzhou automated container terminal has 43 affiliated shipping routes, including 29 international trade routes (23 ASEAN routes) and 14 domestic routes. The terminal's bustle is no longer just about throngs of people and crowding of vehicles but also the swift coordination between data, equipment, and logistics chains. Invisible intelligent scheduling is gradually widening the pathway of Guangxi's maritime openness.