Huaihua is a blessed place for the Chinese revolution, where the Red Army made the strategic “Transfer in Tongdao”, reversing the tide of the revolution. It is also a blessed land for the Chinese nation, as it was in Zhijiang County, where China accepted Japan’s unconditional surrender in 1945. For the people of the world, Huaihua holds significance as it is in Anjiang, where Academician Yuan Longping successfully cultivated the hybrid rice. Furthermore, it is a destination for numerous businessmen and investors, as Hongjiang served as an important transit hub on the ancient Maritime Silk Road.
In the 1970s, with the opening of the Hunan-Guizhou Railway and Zhicheng-Liuzhou Railway, Huaihua, known as “a city brought by trains”, began to take shape. Leveraging its strength as a transportation hub, Huaihua has accelerated the development of the water, land and air transportation network, forming a comprehensive transportation network featuring internal circulation and external openness. In 2017, it was listed as one of the national integrated transportation hubs.
As a central city in the border region of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, Guizhou, and Guangxi provinces and a national comprehensive transportation hub, Huaihua is marshaling the efforts of the entire city to accelerate the construction of Huaihua International Land Port. The city aims to establish this port as a vital strategic platform for central China to connect with the ASEAN countries and implement the RCEP, as well as a landmark project for inland areas’ reform and opening-up. Huaihua has created a new opening-up pattern that relies on the “dual corridors”, connects with the “two oceans” and serves the “dual-circulation” development paradigm.
Huaihua International Land Port enhances the city’s transportation advantage
According to the map depicting access to the sea from Huaihua, the city stands as the sole converging city of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor and the International Land-Sea Corridor facing the Indian Ocean in central China, boasting a prominent regional and transportation advantage.
A three-dimensional transportation network comprising 4 conventional railways, 3 high-speed railways, 8 expressways, a water transportation network, and Zhijiang Airport has facilitated Huaihua’s development as a national integrated transportation hub and national logistics hub.
In September 2021, the construction of the Huaihua International Land Port kicked off. The land port started to handled international freight trains while the construction was not fully complete.
In May 2022, the Hunan Provincial People’s Government issued the guideline on thoroughly participating in the Belt and Road Initiative and supporting construction of the Huaihua International Land Port. According to the guideline, Huaihua has been entrusted with the new positioning and mission of building it as a strategic gateway for the New Western Land-Sea Corridor and serving as the sole freight consolidation center for ASEAN within the province, with a clear objective to establish Huaihua International Land Port as a landmark project of reform and opening up in inland areas.
In July 2022, the Huaihua Municipal Party Committee held the Third Plenary Session of the Sixth Municipal Committee and made a decision to mobilize the entire city’s efforts to accelerate the construction of Huaihua International Land Port.
On July 22, 2022, Huaihua participated in the Inter-provincial Joint Conference on the New Western Land-Sea Corridor held in Chongqing for the first time and officially became a member of the circle of friends of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor.
Huaihua International Land Port has continuously improved its facilities and optimized customs clearance services with the daily container handling capacity reaching 400 TEUs and the annual cargo throughput reaching 6 million tons.
To ensure the smooth operation of international freight trains, Huaihua Customs has implemented key measures of the General Administration of Customs to support the construction of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor, consolidating and deepening the point-to-point collaboration mechanism with customs of the cities along the New Western Land-Sea Corridor such as Mengla, Pingxiang and Qinzhou. It has vigorously promoted the construction of smart customs and implemented the action plan for building a powerful country with smart customs, and actively promoted facilitated models such as rapid customs clearance for railway imports and exports. From January to September, a total of 700 railway fast clearance applications were processed. A green channel for the import and export of agricultural products has been opened, and a 24/7 appointment customs clearance service has been implemented to ensure that freight trains operate during holidays.
Wang Youhua, director of Huaihua Customs, stated that at Huaihua International Land Port, efficient customs clearance, declaration, and inspection can be achieved, with one-stop processing. This further enhances customs clearance efficiency and better serves the high-quality development of Huaihua International Land Port, serving the objective of building the land port as a landmark project of reform and opening up in inland areas.
With Huaihua International Land Port as the hub, cross-border and domestic freight trains have been operated. Compared to traditional transportation routes and methods, engaging in cross-border logistics through Huaihua International Land Port offers shorter transportation distances and faster delivery times.
Up to now, Huaihua International Land Port has established seven international logistics corridors for seabound transportation, including routes to the Beibuwan Port, Zhanjiang Port, Guangzhou Port, and Shenzhen Port, as well as cross-border routes to Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar. It serves as a crucial node city on the eastern route of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor, with 70% of the goods traveling south along the New Land-Sea Corridor passing through Huaihua. A new pattern of opening up, characterized by relying on dual corridors, connecting two oceans, and serving dual circulations, is taking shape.
Huaihua handles the most freight trains in central China
At the main port area of Huaihua International Land Port, trains loaded with goods such as automobiles from Jiangxi, chemicals from Hubei, and agricultural machinery, steel, and other products from Hunan are dispatched to ASEAN countries, driving the industrial development of regions along the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi corridor. Products from Huaihua, including luggage, bamboo products, rice noodles, sugar oranges, tea and mugwort products are exported to various parts of the world through the land port.
Minerals from Africa and Australia, as well as agricultural and forestry products such as cassava starch, grains and fruits from ASEAN countries, are transported along international railway lines to Huaihua and then distributed nationwide. The import and export trade at Huaihua International Land Port is thriving.
From April 1, 2024, the frequency of the scheduled Huaihua-Laos freight trains was increased from one train per week to three trains per week, significantly enhancing the cargo transportation capacity of the Huaihua International Land.
According to statistics from Huaihua Customs, part of the Changsha Customs, in the first three quarters of this year, Huaihua International Land Port handled 731 freight trains, representing a year-on-year increase of 129.8%. Among them, 261 were China-Laos freight trains, marking a year-on-year surge of 574.7%, ranking first in central China.
In the first three quarters of this year, the total import and export value of Huaihua reached 10 billion yuan, marking a year-on-year increase of 65.2%, with its growth rate continuing to rank first in Hunan Province. Exports amounted to 8.76 billion yuan, up 61.3%, while imports totaled 1.24 billion yuan, up 98.5%. Among them, exports to ASEAN countries reached 2.19 billion yuan, an increase of 55.3%.
Externally, Huaihua International Land Port has actively expanded its sea routes, with its international freight network covering 97 ports and terminals in 40 countries and regions. It has adjusted the structure of imported and exported goods, with transportation categories encompassing 221 items across 16 categories. The exports of NEVs, lithium batteries, and solar cells, referred to as the “new three items”, are increasing, with high-value-added products such as small excavators, rice mills, sachets, electric motors, auto parts, motorcycle parts, machinery parts, textiles, hardware tools, and daily necessities becoming the mainstream of exported goods.
Internally, Huaihua has actively integrated into the Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Central China Urban Agglomeration, Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle, and Hainan Free Trade Port. It has established a cooperation mechanism among the five provinces/municipality/region of Hunan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Yunnan, and promoted the Three-Province Cooperation Agreement. It has conducted field research on cargo sources in Wuhan, Yichang, Jingzhou, and Jingmen in Hubei Province, as well as in Nanchang and Yingtan in Jiangxi Province with in-depth analyses on local cargo consolidation and transportation routes to optimize its work and strengthen cooperation on customs clearance facilitation.
Facilitate the development of port-neighboring industries
At the construction site of the Multimodal Transport Center of Huaihua International Land Port project, large construction vehicles are shuttled back and forth. The China Construction Third Engineering Division is in the process of infrastructure construction for the project. Earthwork and foundation treatment have been largely completed. More than half of the construction progress for various water supply and drainage pipelines and roads within the site has been achieved. Currently, pile foundation construction is underway, preparing for the main construction work.
The Multimodal Transport Center project has a total investment of 1.02 billion yuan and occupies an area of 539 mu (about 35.9 hectares). It will involve the construction of a new dedicated railway line, along with supporting facilities such as a smart warehousing and logistics center and a consolidated container center. The project will also establish a customs supervision area and a cross-border e-commerce pilot zone, aiming to create a three-tier center covering provincial-level transfer, regional distribution, and urban-rural distribution. It will establish a comprehensive logistics system integrating express delivery, full-truckload transportation, less-than-truckload transportation, as well as road-rail and rail-sea multimodal transportation. Additionally, it will achieve interconnection and differentiated development with the Huaihua West Railway Logistics Park, promoting cost reduction and efficiency enhancement in logistics, and accelerating the construction of a national logistics hub for commercial and trade services as well as a logistics-friendly city.
Two years ago, Mou Xiaofeng signed an agreement with the People’s Government of Huitong County to establish Hunan Xiangtong Industrial Co., Ltd., with a total investment of 500 million yuan, capable of producing 6 million pieces of luggage annually. Nowadays, he has invested an additional 100 million yuan to launch the Xianghuai Luggage Project, which is expected to produce 5 million pieces of luggage annually, achieve an annual output value of over 600 million yuan, provide employment opportunities for more than 800 workers, and propel Huaihua’s luggage industry to a new level.
Huaihua is fully committed to establishing itself as a manufacturing base of luggage and leather goods, which is a significant project for promoting the integrated development of the port, port-surrounding industries and the city. The municipal Party committee has incorporated the luggage and leather goods industry into the “5+10” modern industrial system, making Huaihua the first city in China to establish a luggage and leather goods production base at the municipal level.
Within a year, the luggage and leather goods industry has grown from scratch, with a total of 102 projects introduced in the sector, involving a total investment of over 8.1 billion yuan. A comprehensive development pattern covering the entire luggage and leather goods industry chain, including manufacturing and sale, has basically taken shape. The city aims to host 300 enterprises in the luggage and leather goods industry chain by 2027, with 60 above-scale enterprises, achieving a total output value exceeding 10 billion yuan.
Huaihua is seizing the historical opportunity to support the development of relevant industries and is fully committed to building a “5+10” modern industrial system. Provincial-level industrial clusters in areas such as advanced display technologies, luggage and leather goods, and traditional Chinese medicine are gaining momentum, with a batch of billion- and ten-billion-yuan-scale leading enterprises in industrial chains rapidly emerging. Centered around the development concept of “revitalizing industries with port and city with industries”, Huaihua is actively promoting the development of port-surrounding industries, with a focus on advancing the construction of luggage industrial parks, green food industrial parks, and the China Co-op agriculture industrial park. This will propel the development of port-neighboring industries and promote the integrated development of Hecheng District and Zhongfang County. With all these measures, Huaihua strives to achieve the “three one-thousand” goals by 2026, namely, handling over 1,000 freight trains, achieving a cargo throughput of over 10 million tons, and generating a total output value of over 100 billion yuan.
(Translated by Yang Hong)