The 'Golden Waterway' is rejuvenated
On December 10, 2024, Yunnan Guanlei Port officially opened to the outside world, taking a new step towards improving quality and expanding capacity. As the first port for Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam to enter China via the Lancang Mekong River, Guanlei Port has a unique location advantage of "one river connecting six countries". Since the opening of the Guanlei Port one year ago, ships have been shuttling back and forth, and the huge bridge crane operations at the container terminal by the river are busy. The roar of cargo ships sounding their horns and the whistle of cross-border passenger cruise ships are intertwined. As of December 9, 2025, the international shipping cargo of the Lancang Mekong River has exceeded 260000 tons, with a value of over 2.6 billion yuan, an increase of over 70% and 124% respectively year-on-year. The variety of goods has increased to more than 2100, and the number of people transported in and out of the country has exceeded 34000.
Over the past year, Kunming Customs has seized opportunities, with infrastructure construction as the cornerstone, intelligent transformation of customs clearance processes as the driving force, and the construction of a three-dimensional open pattern as the path, to promote the Guanlei Port to become the forefront of open cooperation in the Greater Mekong Subregion and a key hub for cross-border trade and personnel exchanges between China and ASEAN countries.
With the direct transportation advantage of the Lancang Mekong River waterway without transit through a third country, the all-around opening pattern of "water, land and air rail" that complements and connects with the Kunming Bangkok Highway, China Laos Railway and Xishuangbanna Gasa International Airport in an efficient manner, and the high-quality and convenient customs clearance guarantee, more and more goods enter and leave through this "golden waterway", and the port advantage is further highlighted.
Now the infrastructure of Guanlei Port is more complete than before, and customs clearance is faster. We have shortened the delivery time from Thailand to entry by 3 days compared to land transportation, and the subsequent domestic transportation is also very convenient, reducing logistics costs by about 20%, "said Wang Dong, a business representative of Xishuangbanna Diannan Customs Declaration Co., Ltd. With the tonnage of navigable vessels in the Lancang Mekong waterway increasing to 500 tons and the single voyage capacity increasing by 66.7%, container berths, comprehensive terminals, and water transportation border markets have successively landed. The designated supervision site for imported fruits has been officially put into use, and the Guanlei Port has further improved its quality and capacity.
Over the past year, Xishuangbanna Customs has supervised the export of over 140000 tons and 1.5 billion yuan of goods through the Guolei Port, with year-on-year growth of over 29% and 78% respectively, demonstrating sustained vitality in foreign trade.
In order to effectively improve the convenience level of port clearance, Xishuangbanna Customs continues to promote the construction of a smart customs, promote the transformation and upgrading of port digitization, upgrade the customs supervision operation site to use the "Smart Logistics 2.0" platform, complete the hardware and software transformation of the "Smart Checkpoint", collaborate with various departments at the port to activate container terminals and new freight terminals, launch "appointment clearance, priority inspection" facilitation measures, innovate and implement the "customs clearance speed increase+cold chain escort+full-time service" guarantee mechanism, and improve clearance efficiency by more than 20%.
The waterway winds across mountains and seas, connecting the inside and outside, allowing for smooth flow of goods and people. On January 13, 2025, the international passenger transport function of Guanlei Port was officially opened. Shen Xueliang, Director of the Xishuangbanna Customs Office in Guanlei, introduced: "We have deepened the application of 'smart travel inspection' and equipped the passenger clearance site with smart health inspection gates, multilingual self-service declaration machines, X-ray machine luggage inspection systems and other equipment. Passengers can achieve electronic clearance of the entire process of 'fingertip declaration, QR code verification, infrared temperature measurement', further improving the clearance experience. ”As of December 9th, Xishuangbanna Customs has supervised 34000 inbound and outbound personnel at the Guolei Port. (Dong Dongdong, Li Ximei/Text)