On the morning of July 21st, the quiet of Yantai Port was broken by two deep, low-pitched horns. A massive cargo ship, having sailed from Incheon, South Korea, docked steadily alongside the berth. Fifty-three containers packed with commercial vehicles were smoothly unloaded, while several shuttle trucks moved in an orderly fashion, efficiently transferring the containers to the rear railway yard.

Inside the yard, customs inspections began simultaneously without the hassle of repeatedly submitting paperwork. Relying on the reform of the sea-rail-road multimodal transport's "Single Document" system, shipping documents for each transport leg are interoperable, data is shared in real-time, and the entire flow of goods is clearly traceable. "Single Document" means that only one standardized multimodal transport document is used for the entire shipment. The cargo owner only needs to make a single entrustment, a single settlement, and a single insurance payment. The multimodal transport operator assumes full responsibility for the entire journey. When changing transport modes midway, there is no need to exchange documents, submit repeated declarations, or make separate payments.

After years of deepening multimodal transport reform and innovation, Shandong has now extended the cross-border rail-road "Single Document" model to cross-border sea transport. "Sea, rail, and road transport were three separate systems. In the past, every time you switched to a different mode of transport, you had to re-coordinate and make separate reports. After arriving at the port, goods had to be stored in the port area waiting for trains, which typically resulted in delays of two to three days," said Xiang Baijun, Marketing Manager of Yantai-Chungju Ferry Co., Ltd., a cargo owner. He noted that with the "Single Document" model, these bottlenecks have all been resolved. "With data sharing, we can lock in information about arriving goods in advance and simultaneously coordinate cross-border cargo sources with local capacity. Goods can be loaded onto trucks one hour after arrival and dispatched three hours later, achieving zero waiting time for transshipment and seamless transfer."

Jin Shi, Manager of the Yantai Business Department of the Jinan Railway Logistics Center under China Railway Jinan Group, closely monitored the cargo transfer pace. At 10:50 AM, the X80442 cross-border train slowly departed from the Yantai Port railway yard. This train, carrying 53 containers, will travel west along the railway line directly to Kashgar. After leaving China, it will continue by cross-border road transport, eventually entering Kyrgyzstan, completing a three-country combined journey of "international sea + domestic rail + overseas road."

"The previous shipping time was about 17 days, but now it has been reduced to 12 days, significantly improving the timeliness of international combined transport," Xiang Baijun said. This multimodal transport model innovation not only saves a considerable amount of logistics costs for Shandong's foreign trade enterprises but also opens up an efficient and smooth new Asia-Europe cross-border logistics corridor for coastal foreign trade companies.