While most cities along the Yangtze River are still busy building downstream docks, Xiangyang has already extended the tentacles of inland freight transportation northward to the upper reaches of the Tangbai River. On July 6, 2026, the bidding announcement for the construction general contracting of the first phase of the Liujiwupo operation area in Tangbaihe Port Area of Xiangyang Port was officially launched online. The core port area project, with a total investment of 650 million yuan, has finally completed all the preliminary processes and is standing at the threshold of comprehensive construction.

Complete the upstream freight gap in the urban area within a 30 month construction period

The project is located in the Liuji Industrial Agglomeration Area of Xiangyang High tech Zone. Four 1000 ton general berths will be built, and the hydraulic structure will be directly upgraded according to the 2000 ton standard. The designed annual cargo throughput is 2.4 million tons, and supporting facilities such as warehousing, loading and unloading, and full chain security will be constructed simultaneously.

Previously, there was no large-scale freight terminal in the upstream of Xiangyang urban area, and a large amount of industrial, mining, agricultural and animal husbandry goods in southwestern Henan and the Nanxiang Basin could only be transferred to downstream ports through highways, resulting in high logistics costs per ton for a long time. After this work area is put into use, it will directly fill this gap, allowing goods in the hinterland to reach the river and sea without having to detour long distances.

Over a year of tackling challenges and completing all the preliminary processes

Xiangyang has established a high-level coordination team to promote this project, using a list based scheduling model to advance the entire process nodes, promoting parallel approval of multiple departments, actively striving for the delegation of provincial approval authority, and quickly resolving multiple bottlenecks such as land acquisition, land use, environmental impact assessment, and ecological demonstration. From 2024 to 2025, the project has successively completed design approval, land transfer, and various special evaluations, completing all preliminary procedures in just over a year, setting a new record for the landing speed of similar inland port projects. Keywords: Port Logistics, Core Port Area

After the completion of this operation area, the advantages of Xiangyang as a national comprehensive transportation hub will be further consolidated. The inland waterway freight network that radiates southwest Henan and links the entire Nanxiang Basin will also be officially formed, laying the most solid foundation for the low-cost logistics operation of regional industrial clusters and water transportation.Editor/Cheng Liting