On the Chongqing Guoyuan Port railway dedicated line, a large gantry crane slowly started, and the cold chain container carrying Laotian bananas was lifted smoothly and accurately positioned. The transfer vehicles immediately entered the customs inspection area. From the mountainous city of Chongqing to Qinzhou Port in the Beibu Gulf, the steel camel caravan crosses mountains and seas, paving a new western land sea corridor that runs through the west and connects the inside and outside. As an inland city, Chongqing was once constrained by its geographical conditions of not being near the sea or along the border. In 2017, it was the first to propose the concept of the Chongqing Guangxi New Southbound Corridor, which was a fictitious sea route and the predecessor of the Western Land Sea New Corridor.

Luhaitong regulatory breakthrough point

During the initial operation of the Western Land Sea New Corridor, the challenge of cross regional and cross departmental data sharing in rail sea intermodal transportation hindered the improvement of the channel's operational efficiency. In the past, after the goods transferred from Chongqing for export arrived at Qinzhou Port, customs staff needed to manually verify the container seals one by one. In order to improve the circulation speed of export goods at ports, Chongqing Customs and Nanning Customs have innovatively launched the Chongqing Guangxi Land Sea Connection supervision model. After the export goods are declared in Chongqing, the container number and seal number pictures, as well as the transit information, are shared in real-time with the Qinzhou Port Customs through the platform. After the goods arrive at the port, the system automatically compares the information at both the departure and exit points, and if there are no abnormalities, they can be released quickly. Relying on the digital western land sea new channel system, the customs supervision mode has shifted from manual verification to intelligent system comparison, which is estimated to effectively reduce port operation time by 4 to 8 hours.

Fruits directly reduce costs

Since the pilot in January 2026, Chongqing has imported 33 batches of Laotian bananas, totaling over 2300 tons. This is thanks to the pilot program of inspection and quarantine of imported fruits in the designated transportation area of the Western Land Sea New Channel launched by Chongqing Customs. In the past, Laotian bananas were transported to border ports by high-speed trucks, and after completing customs clearance at the border, they needed to be loaded onto domestic transport vehicles and transported to Chongqing. The cost of labor and vehicle waiting increased as they were unloaded and loaded. After the implementation of the new model, a box of Laotian bananas will be delivered directly to Chongqing, which not only better locks in freshness but also reduces overall logistics costs by 18% compared to traditional road transportation. Not only are imported goods efficiently entering Chongqing, but western specialty products such as Ningxia wolfberry, Gansu onion, and Chongqing citrus are also accelerating their overseas expansion through channels, with direct access to the ASEAN market in 2 to 5 days. The average transportation time of the current Western Land Sea New Corridor is reduced by more than 60% compared to traditional river sea intermodal transportation, and the types of transported goods have expanded to more than 1100.

Establishing a network of channels to promote openness

On September 16, 2026, the Pinglu Canal connecting Nanning, Guangxi and Beibu Gulf Port will be fully opened for navigation, filling the gap in water transportation to the sea in the southwest region. The first foreign trade liner launched carries goods from Chongqing. Chongqing has dispatched the Western Land Sea New Corridor Pinglu Canal Intermodal Train and Hydrogen Heavy Truck Formation, carrying goods such as disodium sulfate to Vietnam on the liner. The new railway sea and highway sea transportation modes complement the existing railway sea intermodal transportation, international railway intermodal transportation, and cross-border road transportation of the Western Land Sea New Corridor, providing more logistics options for goods to go abroad. From a single line to a network, the Western Land Sea New Corridor is unleashing open energy. In the first three quarters of 2026, the import and export of 13 provinces, regions, and cities along the Western Land Sea New Corridor amounted to 787.06 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.5%, reaching a new historical high for the same period.Editor/Gao Xue