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How does the ship lift at the Three Gorges Dam help vessels bypass the dam?

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Locator map highlighting the course of the Yangtze River across China, with surrounding countries in East and Central Asia labeled, including India, Russia, Mongolia, Japan, and the Koreas. The Yangtze River is marked in blue and labeled in orange, showing its path from western to eastern China. An inset globe in the upper left shows the region's location within Asia.
Yangtze River

The ship lift at the Three Gorges Dam functions as a mechanical elevator that allows vessels of up to 3,000 tons to bypass the dam’s five-tier ship locks. By providing this alternative route, the lift enables smaller ships to navigate past the dam structure more quickly than they could through the locks.1