Currently, ships sailing in the restricted channel of the Yangtze River Delta have differences with ship scale listed in Standards of Inland Navigation (GB 50139—2004). The container ship scale planned by the Ministry of Transport doesn’t include in Standards of Inland Navigation. Restricted channel scales are determined only by regulating the minimum value but have no formula. Actually, waterway scales are directly related to ship scales. This paper explores the way of determining reasonably the restricted channel design scales according to design ship scales based on related experience of channel design.