Hydro-floating ship lift is a brand new type invented in China，which is especially suitable for the ship lift of large tonnage or with large water level variation in approach channel，so as to have broad application prospects. Based on the Yantan expansion project，we propose the overall layout of the 2×1 000 t hydro-floating ship lift，innovate the hydraulic driving system，improve the flow conditions of the shafts on the premise of ensuring the stability of the tower column structure，guarantee synchronized and stable motion of the balance weights，and apply the one-dimension mathematical model to calculate and analyze the running characteristics of ship lift. The calculation results show that the design of kiloton hydro-floating ship lift is reasonable and feasible，which can provide references for the similar projects.