On a recent sunny morning in the coastal city ofXiamen in East China's Fujian Province, as temperatures surged, inside a perfectly climate-controlled dispatch center of the Xiamen Container Terminal Group, a port worker sat comfortably inside what looked like a full-sized convertible toy car. Keeping his eye on the screen, the worker had one hand on the “wheel,” and the other constantly pressed different buttons and moved the joystick.
At first glance, the worker looked more like he was playing a car racing game. However, a closer look at the screen, split into several small portions, revealed that the worker was actually organizing containers at the nearby Haitian Container Terminal. When the worker pressed buttons inside the dispatch room, the work was being done by machines in the scorching heat.
Such highly automated operations were unimaginable for port workers just a few decades ago. Another port worker, who has worked at Xiamen Port for 25 years, recalled how things used to be done – workers had to board the ships, carry goods off the ships on their backs, load them onto handcarts for transport, and use rope nets and small cranes to hoist the cargo.
From entirely relying on manual labor to highly automated operations, Xiamen Port, whose history dates back centuries, has become a modern, world-class port, thanks to the tireless efforts in tech upgrades, effectively supporting Xiamen, Fujian, as well as China's ever-growing trade with the rest of the world. Xiamen has been a trading port since ancient times, as well as a gateway for China's opening-up and external cooperation. The Xiamen Special Economic Zone (SEZ) was one of the four earliest special economic zones in the country, and in 2015, Xiamen officially became part of the China (Fujian) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ).
On the morning of October 16, 2024, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Chinese president, and chairman of the Central Military Commission, inspected the Xiamen Area of China (Fujian) Pilot Free Trade Zone. Over more than 40 years of development, the Xiamen Special Economic Zone has experienced tremendous changes that were once unimaginable, he said.
Today, the requirements for reform and opening-up, both in depth and breadth, are higher than ever before. Fujian and Xiamen need to adapt to the changing situation, steadily advance institutional opening-up, align with international high standards, and achieve more institutional and policy outcomes to contribute to the expansion of high-level opening-up, Xi said, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
Thriving business
The outcomes of Xiamen's efforts to steadily advance opening-up are on vivid display at Xiamen Port.
Under Xiamen's clear skies, the Haitian Container Terminal of Xiamen Port was in full operation. Trucks moved in and out in an orderly flow, navigating between rows of stacked containers. Gantry cranes traveled slowly along the quay, maintaining uninterrupted loading and unloading work. Overhead, airplanes passed frequently-located beneath the flight path of Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport, the terminal sees a steady stream of aircraft flying over the work site, becoming part of the daily scene.
Looking out over the harbor waters, a cargo ship operated by the French shipping giant CMA CGM Group arrived at the Haitian Container Terminal around 8 am and is scheduled to depart the terminal around 4:30 am the next day, according to Chen Caishun, the on-duty manager from Xiamen Container Terminal Group.
The ship, scheduled to load nearly 2,200 TEUs of cargo within about 20 hours at the terminal covering goods such as ceramics, shoes and various daily goods, is heading to multiple Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore and Indonesia. “This is also one of our 'Silk Road Maritime' routes,” Chen told the Global Times.
At the opening ceremony of the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held on October 18, 2023, President Xi announced in his keynote speech that China will vigorously integrate ports, shipping and trading services under the “Silk Road Maritime,” and accelerate the building of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and the Air Silk Road, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
Chen noted that the “Silk Road Maritime” has evolved from a strategic concept in its early stages into a core component of Xiamen Port's operations. “Take Haitian Container Terminal as an example, its growth in the first half of this year was largely driven by the 'Silk Road Maritime', particularly through the expansion of Southeast Asian routes,” he said.
Thanks to various efforts, ranging from improving port efficiency to policy support, “Silk Road Maritime,” which focuses on shipping routes to Southeast Asia and other regions along the Maritime Silk Road, has become a thriving business at Xiamen Port. The port currently operates more than 132 “Silk Road Maritime” routes, reaching over 145 ports across 46 countries and regions, according to official data.
Haitian Container Terminal is the departure port for the “Silk Road Maritime.” In the first quarter of this year, the terminal handled 717,200 TEUs, up 5.2 percent year-on-year, with Southeast Asia routes standing out at 317,800 TEUs, a 16.67 percent increase. What's more, during this period, it added seven new shipping routes to countries including Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
Since the start of this year, the “Silk Road Maritime platform” has advanced the Southern China-Southeast Asia land-sea corridor through multimodal transport, opening new routes from Xiamen to Southeast Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. Notably, a direct line to Chancay Port in Peru, a Chinese-built port that went into operation in November 2024, was launched, bypassing Central America and reducing transshipment risks, according to Li Nan, secretary-general of the Silk Road Maritime International Association and the general manager of Fujian Silk Road Maritime Management Co, the operator of the “Silk Road Maritime.”
By expanding its routes and innovating transportation methods, “Silk Road Maritime” has helped ensure the stability of global supply chains. “Despite uncertainties in the international market, China's foreign trade has continued to grow steadily,” Li told the Global Times.
Li said that to support the development of “Silk Road Maritime,” the platform has adopted smart container technologies-such as the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System and 5G technology-to enable end-to-end logistics visibility, improving both efficiency and safety.
Leveraging advanced technologies and policy support to bolster efficiency has become a key focus at Xiamen Port.
World-leading efficiency
Just after sunrise on July 3, the Hyundai Forward, a 294-meter-long cargo ship operated by South Korea's HMM, quietly pulled into the Hairun Container Terminal at Xiamen Port. Different from the Haitian Container Terminal, this terminal majorly operates ocean routes to America, Europe and Australia. With a deadweight tonnage of over 62,000, the vessel was scheduled to load 583 TEUs before continuing its journey, including various cargos from shoes to ceramics bowls to iron fences and treadmills.
As loading operations got underway, towering bridge cranes loaded containers into the cargo ship from a stream of trucks carrying the containers from various parts of the port. Stunningly, the cranes and the vast majority of the trucks are driverless.
After six hours of tightly coordinated operations, the ship departed for Kaohsiung Port at the Taiwan Island – its final stop before crossing the vast Pacific Ocean to reach the west coast of the US, carrying with it not just cargo, but renewed confidence in the resilience and reach of China's foreign trade.
Such efficiency is possible thanks to Xiamen Port's ongoing technological upgrades. The Haitian Container Terminal began electrifying its equipment in 2008 and took the lead in implementing remote control of quay cranes in 2015, making it one of the earliest terminals in China to adopt smart and green port development. In July 2020, smart port upgrades were extended to the Hairun Container Terminal, marking China's first full-area, end-to-end intelligent transformation of a traditional container terminal.
Unlike partial upgrades at other terminals, the Hairun Container Terminal's smart transformation covers the entire port area and full operational chain, including horizontal transport, yard cranes, and cargo handling, according to port officials.
Thanks to such efforts, Xiamen Port's efficiency ranks among the highest globally. In May 2025, global rankings for the average time international ocean-going container ships spent at major ports were released, with Xiamen ranking second and third worldwide for time at berth and in-port stay, respectively.
These indicators reflect the overall efficiency of port operations, including facilities and equipment, piloting, scheduling, loading and unloading, intermodal transport, and customs clearance, as well as cargo handling efficiency during a vessel's time at berth.
Beyond hardware upgrades, policy support is also key to achieving world-class port efficiency. As a special economic zone and part of a national FTZ, Xiamen has rolled out more than 630 innovative reform and opening-up measures, with 153 of them marking “firsts” in China, according to the Xiamen Area of China (Fujian) FTZ.
In addition, efficient customs clearance operations have also become a key driver of growth. “Since the beginning of this year, Haicang Customs has taken many measures to promote customs clearance facilitation. In terms of optimizing services, it has implemented pre-arrival reporting, guided enterprises to declare customs in advance, pre-examined documents, carried out timely inspections and assessments, adopted the model of advance declaration plus appointment inspection, and used consolidated taxation and tax guarantees to alleviate the financial pressure on enterprises and optimize scheduling,” Lai Yichao, an official with Haicang Customs, told the Global Times.
Enterprising spirit
These efforts provide concrete support for businesses in Xiamen to effectively navigate the increasingly complex global trade landscape and continuously open up new channels for trade.
Xiamen-based WORTHFIND IMP & EXP Co started with toiletry storage bags and gradually expanded to include suitcases, laptop bags, smart waist packs, and more – offering a diverse range of products sold in 150 countries and regions.
Even though the company has set up overseas warehouses in western and eastern regions of the US, revenue from the US market has dropped from 90 percent of its total revenue three years ago to 60 percent at present, thanks to efforts to explore other emerging markets, Lin Yang, deputy general manager of the company, told the Global Times.
Lin also noted that the company's self-owned brand holds pricing power, allowing flexibility in price adjustments, and that tariffs are included in logistics costs, with part of the increased expenses shared by partner logistics providers. “So far, US policies have not had a substantial impact on the company's operational pace,” said Lin.
WORTHFIND is not alone in tackling challenges head-on and finding new growth points, leveraging various policy supports and efficient logistics at Xiamen Port.
ECO-WORTHY, a Xiamen-based new energy products exporter, had already achieved half of its annual target in the first half of the year and expects to meet its revenue goal by year-end. The company's founder, Wang Hao, said its products hold a strong market share on cross-border e-commerce platforms, particularly in Europe and the US. “Despite challenges in recent years, the company can still maintain product competitiveness,” Wang told the Global Times.
Wang emphasized that Xiamen offers a favorable business environment, with well-regulated government management and strong support for foreign trade enterprises. “Thanks to Xiamen's superior import-export conditions, we have been able to conduct overseas business smoothly and quickly expand into emerging markets,” he said.
All of this demonstrates an enterprising spirit that has underpinned the high-quality development of Xiamen since it became one of the first four special economic zones in the early years of China's reform and opening-up policy and a gateway for China's cooperation with the rest of the world.
In his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum on September 3, 2017, President Xi noted that Xiamen is where he started off when he came to Fujian Province to take up a new post in 1985, and said that there is a popular saying here in southern Fujian, “Dedicate yourself and you will win,” which embodies an enterprising spirit. Xiamen's success is a good example demonstrating the perseverance of the 1.3 billion-plus Chinese people, he said at that time, according to Xinhua.
“We have encountered difficulties and challenges on the way forward. But we have persevered and kept pace with the times. With dedication, courage and ingenuity, we are making great progress in pursuing development in today's China,” President Xi said, according to Xinhua.
In interviews with the Global Times, port workers, customs officials and businesspeople in Xiamen fully demonstrated this enterprising spirit – while acknowledging the challenges in global trade, they exude a sense of calm and confidence that through dedicated efforts, they can always find new ways to pursue win-win cooperation with the rest of the world.
“Despite various challenges, we have always worked hard to promote Chinese products to the world. Especially in the global e-commerce market, “Made in China” is still an important label and is favored by consumers,” Yang Kaimo, manager of the customer service department at Xiamen Port Logistics Company, told the Global Times, adding that such efforts are also aimed at meeting the needs of consumers from various countries and regions who rely on Chinese-made products for their daily lives.
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SOURCE Global Times
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