The navigation channel of the Yangtze River below the city of Nanjing has an excellent natural condition. With lots of water conservancy and waterborne projects underway, this channel possesses essential conditions for large-sized seagoing vessels sailing into the Yangtze River, but there exist some shallow areas that restrict the navigation benefits. In the 1990s, a research program for the systematic regulation of the deep-water channel of the Yangtze River below Nanjing was initiated. Based on the long-term research on the river process and channel situation, the construction thoughts of“integrated planning, implementing in stages, regulating from the lower to the upper, opening and then smoothing”, and the regulation principles of“taking the best time and circumstances, controlling the key part, implementing progressively, planning globally adapting to local conditions”, were gradually formed, which provides a technically-feasible scheme to realize the extension of the 12.5m deep-water channel in Yangtze River from the estuary to Nanjing.