Revitalization at the ancient port Jiaozhou

Beginning in the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) Jiaozhou was an important stop on the ancient maritime Silk Road for more than 1,000 years.

With silk, brocade, ginseng and fur traded for spices, kapok, medicinal herbs and ivory, Jiaozhou's Banqiao town was a flourishing commercial hub for locals and merchants from Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia and even the Arabian Peninsula.

Today, the county-level city under the jurisdiction of Qingdao is being revitalized by recent national plans to develop new land and maritime Silk Roads.

Jiaozhou plans to leverage its already-developed freight transport system that boasts seamless connections between seaports and railway stations. A new airport is planned to be operational by 2025.

"Back in ancient times, you would have seen thousand sailing ships arrayed at Jiaozhou's Banqiao Port," said Zhang Deping, Party chief of Jiaozhou. "Today trains and vessels from all over the world meet in the port city and cargo moves up to the next destinations from here with smooth transition."

He said the government has made coordinated efforts with leading transport companies and agencies to build Jiaozhou into a bridgehead on the new Silk Roads.

CRIntermodal, a shipping company, has set up one of its 18 logistics terminals in Jiaozhou, which connects with nearly 600 container transaction stations across the country.

By train it has connected Qingdao with the western frontier city of Khorgos in Xinjiang and reached out to Amsterdam through the Eurasia Continental Bridge. The service has cut transport time from 45 days to 15 days compared with he all-sea route.

To provide more convenience to logistics operators, the Qingdao Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau opened a sub-office in Jiaozhou in October 2013.

A new center by Qingdao Customs for multimodal transport supervision in Jiaozhou recently became operational. In December 2014, customs announced that a special zone surrounding the center will enjoy a number of preferential policies similar to those implemented in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone.

Liu Yingjian, general manager of Bellinturf, an artificial turf producer and exporter in Jiaozhou, said the goods before had to be transported to different locations in Qingdao for packing, inspection, lopading and other procedures, but now these can all be completed in Jiaozhou.

"The streamlined process and well-designed infrastructure have helped us greatly improve delivery efficiency and saved a lot of costs," Liu said.

A number of incentives to support multimodal transportation by the Jiaozhou government are in the pipeline and will be implemented this year, said Zhang Deping.

Transportation operators including Qingdao Port, CRIntermodal and the Jinan Railway Bureau also announced they would dramatically reduce transport and service fees for logistics companies in the coming years.

The Jinan Railway Bureau, which operates the railways in Shandong province, is planning to build a 3.33 square kilometer railway logistics park in Jiaozhou, which is expected to be one of the largest railway freight distribution centers in northern China. The park will also help increase local sea-rail throughput from 55,000 containers at present to 500,000 containers by 2017.

zhuqiong@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 01/30/2015 page12)