Abstract: The chamber-launching ship lift can adapt to the larger water level range and the faster variable rate of water level. The rivers in central and western region in China have the characteristics of larger changes in water yield and water level with the seasons and straitness of the river regime， thus the chamber-launching ship lift has broad application prospect. Based on the researchs of Yantan and Goupitan ship lift， the paper summarizes the wirerope-hoisting chamber-launching vertical ship lift′s characteristics， operation mode and hydrodynamic characteristics in process of the ship chamber sinking into or going out of water. And then， the paper gives a brief account of water fluctuation characteristics in the ship chamber and the ship chamber pool， and expounds the former′s theoretical analysis and formula derivation； moreover， the paper sums up the mechanism of the ship chamber′s additional load when the ship chamber sinking into or going out of water and some engineering measures to reduce the additional load， and introduces some related empirical formulae. In addition， the paper points out the focus of research in the next phase: the systematism and continuity of the hydrodynamic characteristics should be paied more attention to； the method of numerical simulation also should be strengthen； and a thorough investigation into the ship chamber stress， ship chamber operational safety and variation characteristics of the hoisting system in combination with model tests should be carried out.