In the year to 21 December 2009, a total of 72m tons of cargo had passed the Three Gorges shiplocks including 13m tons using fanba. Instead of waiting their turn in the queue, many shippers opt to save time by unloading cargo and transporting it by road before loading the cargo back onto vessels further upstream or downstream beyond the final set of locks. The practice is known in Chinese as fanba.

According to the Three Gorges Administration of Navigational Affairs, the locks have a revised annual capacity of 100m tons.