As ports and harbours have been developing rapidly and riverside industrial zones booming in recent years alongside the Changjiang River in Jiangsu province, it is urgent to improve the existing navigable channels’ ability to handle traffic and adopt severer standards for navigable waterways in the lower stretch of the Changjiang River downstream of Nanjing. The lower stretch of the river downstream of Nanjing could be divided into two parts at the place where Jiangyin bridge locates. This paper demonstrates appropriate design vessel-types for navigation, designed navigational standards and desired geometry and dimensions of channels along the river in connection with physical conditions and engineering restrictions, demands of ports and local economic development and the sailing requirements of larger ships. It proposes the principle on value-taking for desired geometry and dimensions of deepwater channels and further gives recommended values in the main sections. Based on the spatial and temporal changes in hydrographic conditions in the studied river stretch, the paper gives the limited drafts for design vessel-types with different allowable under-keel clearance at different water level guarantee rates, and shows that the seasonal changes in draft limitation of large-scaled vessels should be taken into account in ship operations.