Xinhua News Agency, Shenzhen/Hong Kong, October 12, Title: New hub deepens new connectivity, new integration creates new future - Overview of the new opening of Huanggang Port
Wang Feng, Xiao Yichen, Xi Tianqi
At 6:30 on October 12, the Huanggang Port, which had been upgraded and rebuilt after seven years, was officially opened for operation. The first batch of passengers and vehicles passed through the inspection channel in an orderly manner, opening a new customs clearance mode.
From the former comprehensive port for passengers and cargo to today's pure travel inspection, three-dimensional integrated transportation hub and Shenzhen-Hong Kong science and technology collaborative portal, from the traditional "two places and two inspections" to the innovative "one place and two inspections" and "cooperative inspection and one release", the reopened Huanggang Port is consolidating the China Unicom base with hardware upgrades, leveraging the flow of elements with institutional innovation, and writing the answer to the era of deep integration of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area with a new attitude.
Upgrading and opening to deepen connectivity in the Greater Bay Area
The Huanggang Port Joint Inspection Building stands majestically. With the size of the largest single port building in China and its 24-hour uninterrupted operation, it carries a massive flow of people between Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
Approaching the integrated gate, you put your ID, press your fingerprints, and look at the camera - several gates pop open one after another, "just like passing through a subway gate, you're here in one go." This is the most intuitive feeling of many tourists on the first day of operation.
The reconstructed Huanggang Port has 134 self-service lanes and 68 manual counters. When using the self-service channel, passengers only need to queue once, check their documents and verify their identity once to complete the entry and exit procedures.
"It's very convenient and fast!" said Ms. Huang, the first passenger to enter Shenzhen through Huanggang Port. Mr. Choi, a Hong Kong citizen, visits Shenzhen once a week or two. He said that the convenient customs clearance experience at Huanggang Port makes him more willing to visit the mainland more often.
Huanggang Port is China's first large-scale land port that implements 24-hour customs clearance. Since its opening in 1989, passenger traffic has increased from thousands of passengers per day to more than 60,000 at peak times, and cross-border private vehicle traffic has increased from more than 100 to about 10,000 vehicles per day, serving hundreds of millions of cross-border passengers. As the demand for customs clearance between Hong Kong and Shenzhen increases, the port will start reconstruction at the original site in 2019.
After the reconstruction, the overall customs clearance time at Huanggang Port has been significantly shortened from about 30 minutes at the original Lok Ma Chau/Huanggang Port to about 5 minutes. The designed customs clearance flow of the port is 200,000 passengers per day, which can be increased to 300,000 passengers per day after the MTR Northern Link Extension is opened in the future.
In terms of vehicle customs clearance, Hong Kong and Shenzhen adopted the "five-in-one" cooperative vehicle inspection channel for the first time, completing the information collection and system verification of five inspection units in Hong Kong and Shenzhen at once, achieving "one stop, one inspection, and coordinated inspection and release", and the customs clearance time was reduced from about 10 minutes before to about 2 minutes.
Yiu Pak-leung, a member of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said that the newly built Huanggang Port was successfully opened and the customs clearance environment is more comfortable, more technological and more efficient. It is a new milestone in the coordinated development of Shenzhen and Hong Kong and the integrated development of the Greater Bay Area.
Institutional innovation releases new momentum for cross-border flows
"The inspection personnel from the two places work in the same area, like 'back to back'. They can complete the inspection process in one go within a few meters, which is very efficient." Mr. Chen, who traveled to Hong Kong from Shenzhen, said that the design of the joint inspection building is also very advanced.
Behind the new building, a larger transformation is taking place. "Cooperative inspection and one-time release" does not combine two sets of laws into one, but achieves the connection of rules through technical connection and process reengineering. Among the four major bay areas in the world, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is the only one that needs to promote deep integration while maintaining institutional differences. In the process of port construction, "soft connectivity" such as the connection of rules and mechanisms between Shenzhen and Hong Kong has been continuously deepened.
Tian Geng, a staff member of the Shenzhen Port Office, believes that this is a physical machine that solves the approval requirements of two different systems; "This is unique in the world. We have found the balance point of the system under the framework of 'one country, two systems'." Wang Guowen, a senior researcher at the Comprehensive Development Research Institute (Shenzhen, China), said that this kind of in-depth collaboration is of great significance to the integrated development of Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Lee Ka-chiu said that the reopening of the Huanggang Port is the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's initiative to align with the country's "15th Five-Year Plan" outline, prepare and implement Hong Kong's first five-year plan, better integrate into and serve the overall development of the country, and deeply participate in the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Specific actions will greatly improve customs clearance experience and efficiency, effectively promote more convenient and closer transportation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, promote more efficient cross-border flow of people, logistics, capital flow, information flow and other elements, and further promote the in-depth integration of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Reorganization of factors drives a bright new future for the Bay Area
Less than 3 kilometers east of Huanggang Port is the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone.
On December 21, 2025, the Huanggang Port cross-border freight channel was officially closed. At this point, the new pattern of Shenzhen-Hong Kong cross-border logistics of "east in and east out, west in and west out" has basically taken shape. In the west wing, the Shenzhen Bay Port takes over the flow of trucks on the west bank of the Pearl River and western Shenzhen; in the east wing, the Liantang Port, which will be opened in 2020, will directly connect freight to the eastern highway network.
Huanggang Port has relieved the burden of freight, freeing up about 500,000 square meters of land space for the development of the Shenzhen Park of the Loop Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone.
Looking at the planning map of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Huanggang Port is located at an important node of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Corridor, connecting the northern metropolitan area of Hong Kong and the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone, and linking with important platforms such as the Hong Kong Science Park, Xintian Science and Technology City, Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base and Guangming Science City.
Ms. Deng, a parent of cross-border school children who lives in Futian Royal Garden, lamented: "It is more important for the children to sleep for half an hour more than anything else." Ms. Deng's daughter travels to Shenzhen and Hong Kong to go to school every day. It used to take an hour to travel from home to Hong Kong, but now the overall time is shortened by at least half an hour.
With the opening of the new port, surrounding merchants have also made arrangements in advance. "I used to prepare one lion-headed goose a day, but now I have to prepare four every day," said Ms. Xue, who runs a Chaoshan cuisine restaurant near Huanggang Port. Most of the employees recruited by the restaurant can speak Cantonese and Mandarin, and the dishes have also gone through several rounds of adjustments and polishing. Ms. Li, who runs a dental hospital, said that the company had opened branches near Futian Port and Liantang Port when they were opened, and this year it also entered Huanggang Port.
Industry experts said that the upgraded and opening of the port will facilitate the smooth flow of various innovative elements across the border and help build a "half-hour scientific research circle" and "one-hour industrial circle" in the Greater Bay Area.
