The Three Gorges Fanba expressway was completed 18 months ahead of schedule, according to the Yangtze River Administration. The 58km expressway, costing nearly Rmb4bn, starts from Hubei province’s Zigui county in the west and connects in the east with the Shanghai-Chongqing expressway via the Yichang Yangtze Bridge.

The inefficiency of the Three Gorges shiplocks gives rise to a logjam of vessels queuing up on either side of the dam. Rather than 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. This practice is known in Chinese as ‘fanba’. The dedicated expressway that passes through mountainous terrain will improve the road journey for truck drivers.