This Is A Short,

but amazing video,

previously at the the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in central China, ships could only pass through the dam by using a system of five locks, which took over 4 hours, now they can just be lifted up or down, water and all, in just 40 minutes, 

the vertical-hoisting elevator is designed to help small and medium-sized ships, with a maximum displacement of about 3,000 tonnes, to traverse the dam, the water level behind the dam is up to 113 meters higher than the downstream river, the shiplift is equipped with a ship-chamber, which has a pool of water 120-meters long, 18-meters wide and 3.5-meters deep, the chamber, its mechanical systems and the water weigh 15,500 tonnes altogether, amazing!