At the junction of rivers and seas, port operations are in full swing.

During the National Day holiday, ports across the country saw a steady stream of giant vessels and bustling cargo handling, driving both domestic and international trade goods to move in and out quickly.

On the coast of the East China Sea, four giant container ships lined up in formation, with fully automated bridge cranes precisely lifting and lowering, and over a hundred automated guided vehicles silently weaving through the terminal. In the first three days of the National Day holiday, the Phase IV automated terminal at Yangshan Deep-Water Port of the Shanghai International Shipping Center handled a total of more than 79,000 TEUs, up 18.7% compared with the same period last year; over the full seven-day holiday, cumulative operations were expected to exceed 180,000 TEUs.

"The entire process of ship berthing and departure, cargo loading and unloading, and route connections is intelligently scheduled, maximizing the release of the port area's throughput capacity," said Huang Hua, chief remote operator at Shangdong Branch of Shanghai International Port Group.

As a key hub connecting the domestic and international dual circulation, ports can be described as a "barometer" of economic development. In the first eight months of this year, China's total imports and exports of goods grew 17.6% year on year; port cargo throughput reached 12.06 billion tonnes, of which foreign trade throughput rose 2.8% year on year.

By the Beibu Gulf, freight trains shuttle back and forth; at the Qinzhou Port area, cargo ships line up in rows... During the National Day holiday, the automated container terminal at Qinzhou Port in Guangxi maintained 24-hour continuous operations, with throughput from October 1 to 7 expected to reach 45,000 TEUs. On September 16, the Pinglu Canal officially opened to navigation, and the "circle of friends" in this maritime area expanded accordingly: iron ore and auto parts from Yunnan and Guizhou travel south via rail-water intermodal transport to ASEAN; coal and bauxite from Guinea and Laos travel north along the canal into the southwestern hinterland.

"The outbound voyage has been greatly shortened. Recently, we have added quite a few clients from Guigang, Nanning, and Baise in Guangxi, as well as from Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan," said Zhang Minghe, deputy manager of the Operations Department at Guangxi Qinzhou Bonded Port Area Honggang Terminal Co., Ltd.

Turning to the northeast, on the afternoon of October 7, the Ocean Alliance Europe route vessel "Oriental Sweden" docked steadily at Dalian Container Terminal in Liaoning, with seven loading and unloading lines operating simultaneously. Dalian Container Terminal Co., Ltd. handles more than 98% of the foreign trade container transport volume in Northeast China and opened five new foreign trade routes this year.

"Within a berthing time of less than 20 hours, we need to complete the loading and unloading of nearly 4,900 TEUs," said Qiu Li, duty manager of the Operations Department at Dalian Container Terminal Co., Ltd. During the National Day holiday, container terminal operations remained at a high level, with total loading and unloading volume expected to grow about 20% year on year. "There is grain bound for southern provinces, as well as precision instruments, complete vehicles, and equipment parts bound for Europe."

During the National Day holiday, port upgrades did not stop. At Shanghai Port's third automated terminal, construction of the Xiaoyangshan North Operation Area project was in full swing, with all five automated shore cranes in place. Qin Tao, deputy commander of the Engineering Command of Shanghai International Port Group, said that this brand-new automated terminal will iteratively upgrade the new-generation smart operation and management system for automated terminals independently developed by Shanghai International Port Group.

At the Qinzhou Port automated container terminal, five 5,000-tonne-class river-sea intermodal automated container berths are under simultaneous construction, with large tunneling machinery roaring without pause. Before long, river vessels from the Pinglu Canal will be able to berth alongside sea-going vessels, and cargo will achieve "water-to-water transfer with direct unloading and loading" through gantry cranes, belt conveyors, floating cranes, and other equipment, reducing the steps of landing and warehousing and greatly increasing efficiency.

China has already built and put into operation 60 automated terminals nationwide, including 30 automated container terminals, accounting for 27% of the global total; the fastest single-crane operating efficiency at the automated terminals of Shanghai Port and Shandong Port's Qingdao Port exceeds 60 natural containers per hour, and the average time in port for international container vessels at major coastal ports is 1.7 days.