The new spring sunshine pours over Lanzhou City in Gansu Province on the banks of the Yellow River, bringing a touch of warmth to the city. The peaks around the city are still covered with snow that has not yet melted, and the snow shines brightly in the sunlight. This and the gantry cranes of the Gansu (Lanzhou) International Land Port, which are operating at the foot of the mountains, form a picture picture that is both dynamic and static.

In this ancient and vast land in the west of China, Chongqing, Chengdu, Xi’an, Urumqi, Lanzhou, Wuwei, Tianshui and other cities of an international dry port is like a bright pearl, shining in the “One Belt, One Road” on the important nodes.

The construction of Lanzhou international dry port began in 2014, at that time, Gansu provincial government based on the location, transportation, industry and other advantages of Lanzhou, planning the construction of Lanzhou international port area. 2016, this place is officially named Gansu (Lanzhou) international dry port, after several years of development, this place has become an important platform for opening up to the outside world of Gansu and even the northwest region.

Just entering the office building of the administrative committee of the dry port, the reporter was attracted by a special route schematic. This schematic to Lanzhou as the center of the railroad line presents a radial layout, domestic and foreign key railroad nodes, seaports, river port clearly. The map shows that Lanzhou International Dry Port has opened to South Asia, Central Europe, Central Asia, the western land and sea new channel, China Jiwu, Longhai Channel, such as “four to six” international freight trains, and opened up the Alashankou, Erlianhot, Khorgos, Irkeshtan and other 10 ports channel.

“The special feature of Lanzhou International Land Port is its location advantage and comprehensive function. Lanzhou is located in the golden section of the ‘Silk Road Economic Belt’, which is an important channel connecting Central Asia, West Asia and Europe. The construction of the international dry port allows Gansu to leap from an inland hinterland to an open frontier.” Gansu (Lanzhou) international dry port management committee deputy director Yang Shipeng further said, not only that, Lanzhou international dry port also has Lanzhou railroad port, bonded logistics center (B type), multimodal logistics park and other key functional projects. With the gradual landing of the open platform policy and the continuous improvement of the infrastructure, Lanzhou International Dry Port will provide more solid support for the open development of Gansu and other regions.

In the vast operation area of the dry port, a gantry crane stands tall, both sides of the track and the train is neatly arranged rows of containers, colorful boxes in the sunlight appears particularly eye-catching. With a buzzing sound, the container was slowly lifted and transported to the designated location.

The rise and fall of the spreader seems to be the heartbeat of the dry port, powerful and firm, playing a symphony of industrial production. Behind this is a large number of enterprises taking root and developing here, and countless goods assembling and departing here.2024, the development of Lanzhou International Dry Port has made remarkable achievements. A total of 1,678 international freight trains were operated, and more than 100,000 TEUs of goods were sent, with a value of 18.724 billion yuan and a weight of 1,769,700 tons. The annual trade volume of 15.117 billion yuan was completed, up 88.96% year-on-year; the import and export trade volume was 430 million yuan, up 35.55% year-on-year; and the cross-border e-commerce trade volume was 45 million yuan, up 49.45% year-on-year.

“While we have been approved for the qualification of parallel import of automobiles, we have also seized the opportunity of the iterative wave of domestic automobile exports in recent years to vigorously develop the automobile export business. For example, Guangzhou Automobile Group has set up a trading company in the port area in order to explore the market of countries that share the ‘Belt and Road’. Lanzhou Dongchuan-Khorgos JSQ commercial vehicle export liner was included in the charted liner, and 41 liner were operated in the year, with a cargo value of about 1.224 billion yuan.” Yang Shipeng said that this achievement not only reflects the breakthrough of Lanzhou International Dry Port in the field of automobile trade, but also highlights its important role in promoting the diversification of Gansu’s foreign trade.

In addition to automobile trade, Lanzhou International Dry Port also actively explore in the field of cross-border e-commerce. Through innovative modes such as “China-European liner + cross-border e-commerce” and “TIR card class + cross-border e-commerce”, the dry port has helped enterprises expand the international market. In addition, Lanzhou International Dry Port also helped the multimodal transportation company to be approved as the only TIR international road transportation qualification in Gansu Province, and shipped 18 TIR used car export classes. These innovative initiatives provide more choices for Gansu foreign trade enterprises.

Yang Shipeng also mentioned that Lanzhou International Dry Port has made a lot of efforts in optimizing the business environment. By promoting the construction of customs, inspection, remittance and tax clearance, coordinating with the Customs and Excise Department to realize the integration of inspection, priority inspection and “5+2” appointment inspection, coordinating with the tax authorities to implement the tax rebate and banks to solve the problem of foreign exchange settlement, the dry port provides a full range of convenience for enterprises. In addition, the dry port also replicates and promotes the pilot experience of the Pilot Free Trade Zone, promotes the wide-track direct delivery train, the China-Europe shuttle train “collection and consolidation of transportation” mode, to create a “regional free trade” atmosphere, for the declaration of the Pilot Free Trade Zone to consolidate the foundation.

“In the future, we also continue to build ‘Hong Kong Week to’ brand, in the liner, land, finance and other aspects of the whole process to protect, joint financial institutions for cross-border e-commerce to provide financial services, relying on the ‘One Belt and One Road’ integrated service platform to help enterprises Expand overseas markets.” Yang Shipeng said, “Our goal is to enable enterprises to develop in the dry port with peace of mind, so that Gansu’s foreign trade can continue to prosper.”

In 2024, the total foreign trade import and export volume of Gansu Province exceeded 60 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth rate of 25.2%, ranking first in the country. On the basis of this remarkable achievement, Lanzhou International Dry Port, as an important window for Gansu to integrate into the “Belt and Road”, will play a more important role.

Looking forward to 2025, Lanzhou International Dry Port has higher goals. Yang Shipeng said that the dry port will continue to adhere to the port to bring production, production and development of the city, accelerate the promotion of “port, production and city” integration of high-quality development, plans to achieve 400 international liner train, trade volume of 22 billion yuan, import and export trade volume of 1 billion yuan, cross-border e-commerce trade volume of 60 million yuan, freight throughput of 10 million tons. At the same time, the dry port will further optimize the layout of the system, highlight the industrial development, improve the facilities and support, optimize the business environment, and strive to build a national open to the west of the hub of the dry port and the country’s new hub economic pioneer zone.

Although many enterprises are on vacation before and after the Spring Festival, Lanzhou International Dry Port still arranges the duty and provides various services for enterprises. Reporters are loading and unloading a container in front of the eyes, is opening Lanzhou international dry port development of the new spring – here, the ancient spirit of the Silk Road and the modern concept of openness are intertwined, and together cast a bright future for the open development of Gansu.