Shanghai's ports remained bustling with cross-border e-commerce during the National Day holiday, with imported goods clearing customs rapidly and exported products being packed for overseas shipment, as foreign trade momentum continued to be unleashed.

At the Shanghai Maritime Cross-Border E-Commerce Operation Center in the Waigaoqiao Port Area, shipments of clothing, gifts and other goods produced by factories across the Yangtze River Delta were arriving at warehouses one after another during the year-end stocking period for overseas e-commerce platforms. Customs' innovative "master bill plus less-than-container-load consolidation" supervision model has solved the long-standing problem for small and medium-sized enterprises of being unable to wait for a full container and facing high costs for separate shipments, driving steady growth in cross-border e-commerce freight volume.

At the Songjiang air forward cargo station, a similarly busy scene unfolded as workers rushed to sort and package cross-border e-commerce goods, with average daily shipments reaching 100 tonnes during the National Day holiday. A manager at an international logistics company said that in the past, goods had to be delivered to the Pudong Airport cargo station several days in advance, where they queued for security checks and inspections. Flight adjustments meant repeated trips to the site, and during peak periods, waiting one or two days was not uncommon. Now, delivering goods to the forward cargo station is equivalent to boarding a "direct express" for overseas markets, as if the airport cargo station had been "moved" into the corporate industrial park, cutting logistics costs by 10% to 15%.

Customs officials said that by embedding customs supervision into enterprises' warehousing and logistics operations and using non-intrusive intelligent inspection equipment, the vast majority of goods can achieve seamless customs clearance, shortening logistics time by an average of 30%.

The latest customs data show that cross-border e-commerce exports through Shanghai ports have surpassed 100 billion yuan this year, up nearly 30% year on year, maintaining double-digit rapid growth for eight consecutive months. Among them, the number of import and export cross-border e-commerce manifests at Pudong Airport Port has ranked first nationwide in air transport for three consecutive years.

From breaking through with maritime LCL consolidation to speeding up with air forward cargo stations, Shanghai's ports are continuously unleashing the vitality of "buying globally and selling globally" through institutional innovation and technological empowerment.

Hubei: Ezhou Huahu International Airport Sees Rising International Cargo Flow During National Day Holiday

In Hubei, Ezhou Huahu International Airport, Asia's first professional cargo airport, saw ceaseless cargo flows during the holiday, with batches of cross-border cold-chain fresh products entering China rapidly and reaching the domestic market directly, enriching dining choices for the festive season.

During the National Day period, an average of 30 flights arrived at and departed from Ezhou Huahu International Airport each day, with international goods flowing efficiently. From January to September this year, international cargo and mail throughput here exceeded 380,000 tonnes, up 6.9% year on year, setting a record high for the same period in history. At present, the airport has opened 122 cargo routes, the most in the country, including 59 international routes connecting more than 170 countries and regions worldwide. Fresh products such as Norwegian salmon, Thai durian, Boston lobster and chilled beef can be distributed directly to markets across the country within 24 hours.

Gu Yong, deputy director of Ezhou Customs, said that customs innovated an "air-to-air transshipment" supervision model, under which goods are transshipped directly within the supervision zone without the need for repeated customs declarations. Relying on intelligent image review and smart port systems, inspection efficiency has improved, express clearance time has been cut by 70%, and comprehensive corporate costs have fallen by 30%. This model has been recommended globally by the World Customs Organization as an innovative case.

After imported fresh products from around the world arrive at Ezhou Huahu International Airport, they complete customs clearance and inspection and are quickly distributed to major agricultural product distribution centers nationwide. As an important agricultural product distribution hub in central China, the Shouhengcheng wholesale market in Xiaogan, Hubei, was bustling with activity, with container trucks entering in an orderly manner, shuttle vehicles weaving back and forth, and wholesalers busy loading fruits ordered by buyers for shipment to various destinations. The market brings together agricultural products from more than 20 countries and over 30 provinces across the country. Since the National Day holiday began, imported fruit transactions here have increased by more than 30% compared with normal days.

Xinjiang Horgos: Border Sightseeing, Cross-Border Shopping and Diverse Experiences Boost Consumption

During the National Day holiday, the China-Kazakhstan Horgos International Border Cooperation Center welcomed a peak in tourist traffic, with border sightseeing, cross-border shopping and cross-border experiences surging, fully unleashing the vitality of the port's cultural tourism consumption market.

During the holiday, visitor flow at the cooperation center continued to rise, with average daily entries and exits exceeding 30,000 people, and tourists arriving in an endless stream to enter the park, shop and sightsee. Staff said that in the first five days of the National Day holiday, customs clearance trips at the cooperation center reached 150,000, with all 22 intelligent manual inspection channels opened by customs. It is expected that over the entire holiday, customs clearance trips at the cooperation center will exceed 200,000.

As a cross-border cooperation demonstration zone, the center brings together specialty goods from multiple countries, and diverse formats such as duty-free shopping and border-style sightseeing have become popular experiences sought after by tourists. Merchants enjoyed booming customer traffic and steadily rising sales.

The China-Kazakhstan cooperation center straddles the border between China and Kazakhstan. Citizens of both countries and third-country citizens can enter and exit without visas by presenting valid documents such as passports or entry-exit permits to conduct negotiations and trade, and each person can carry 8,000 yuan worth of duty-free goods per day. At present, more than 200 duty-free enterprises and over 2,000 merchants have settled here, gathering nearly 10,000 kinds of goods from China, Central Asia and European countries, ranging from handicrafts and daily necessities to food and electronic products. The categories are rich and the price advantages are obvious, fully meeting tourists' diverse shopping needs.