On the Jiangyu Xinyue cargo ship, 12-year-old Liu Ziqi sliced open the birthday cake just delivered by the drone. This cargo ship carrying 4733 tons of wheat is anchored at the Linjiangping anchorage in Yichang, waiting to be dammed. For the second generation of boats who have been living on boats for years, celebrating a birthday with a cake on the river used to be a matter of luck.

Drone hovering over the river surface

The Linjiangping anchorage in Yichang is a key hub for the security check of upstream ships passing through gates. There are about 120 ships waiting for gates on a daily basis, and during peak hours, there can be over a thousand ships with nearly 9000 crew members. In the past, crew members either relied on supermarket boats for river cruises or took transportation boats back and forth to the shore, with an average round-trip time of over 2 hours.

Starting from March 2026, Yichang will establish a comprehensive service base for unmanned aerial vehicles waiting for the Three Gorges Dam, and set up unmanned aerial vehicle take-off and landing points in four waiting anchorage areas including Linjiangping anchorage. Crew members only need to place orders through the mobile mini program, and the materials will be delivered to the shore landing point, where they will be packed by staff. The drone will take the shortest 20 seconds and the longest 80 seconds from takeoff to delivery. Since its trial operation, it has served over 3000 crew members and completed over 5000 deliveries.

Ship accessories weighing 1.3 tons

Drone delivery is not limited to daily necessities. Three days ago, the Minyu 2505 cargo ship urgently needed 100 triangular wooden fixed boxes, each weighing 13 kilograms and with a total weight of 1.3 tons. In the past, this batch of goods had to be transported by tricycles to the water's edge and then transferred by commuter boats, which took a day and cost thousands of yuan. The drone completed the delivery in just over an hour and charged 260 yuan.

On July 17th, Fan Jun, the ship owner of Yuxing 16, experienced a drone battery swapping. The new batteries totaled 23 pieces, with a total weight of nearly 2 tons, and the old batteries were transported back and forth by more than 4 tons, about 800 meters away from the shore, and were all transported within 90 minutes.

We are not just doing technical work, but also environmental protection work, "said Huang Yuhua, the technical leader of the project. Low altitude flash delivery reduces the frequency of commuting ships, and water pollution and safety risks are also reduced accordingly. Four unmanned aerial vehicle take-off and landing points in Yichang cover the Three Gorges Dam area and surrounding waters, with an average daily delivery of about 35 orders and a peak period of 70 to 80 orders. Next, the maritime department plans to launch exclusive late night snack delivery, allowing crew members to place orders for hot crayfish and barbecue on the river and have them delivered directly to the bow of the ship.Editor/Cheng Liting