Efficient customs clearance makes the China Europe freight train run faster and faster
Opening language
2025 is coming to an end. In this year, Shaanxi deepened the "Three Years" campaign, gathered strength to fight the "Eight Hard Battles", and the economic operation remained stable and improved. Reform and opening up continued to deepen, people's livelihoods steadily improved, the ecological environment continued to improve, and new solid steps were taken in high-quality development and modernization construction. To take stock of the rapid development and changes in various fields and industries in Shaanxi over the past year, starting today, our newspaper has launched the "2025 Shaanxi Imprint" column. Through small incisions and storytelling, it presents the vivid practice of the province's determination to reform, overcome difficulties for enterprises, and the struggle and progress of the masses over the past year, gathering a magnificent spiritual force to write a new chapter in Shaanxi and strive to become a demonstration in the western region.
Our reporter Xiao Qian and trainee reporter Ke Yanqing
In winter, the Xi'an Comprehensive Bonded Zone is bustling with traffic, and container trucks loaded with export goods are quickly distributed through the "one ticket, multiple vehicles" mode. In the past, it was necessary to gather all the containers in order to pass through the truck, but now even one container can pass through, realizing the "on-demand" mode for trucks.
This change stems from the new model of "one ticket, multiple trains" implemented by the customs at Xi'an Station. This model breaks the traditional limitations of "whole report, whole output, whole input" and reduces the cost of goods detention for enterprises by nearly 60%.
At the Xi'an Station Customs Monitoring and Command Center, the data on the logistics supervision platform jumps in real-time. Click on the export goods query, and the customs declaration number, container number, and corresponding customs declaration information for each box of goods are clear at a glance. "On December 8th, Hou Haiyang, the head of the Customs Supervision Department at Xi'an Station, introduced.
Smart supervision has achieved a leap from "hourly level" to "minute level". The system uses AI recognition technology to achieve automatic comparison of data at each node throughout the entire time period, significantly reducing the approval process time from an average of 4 hours to 5 minutes and halving the preparation time for inspection.
Previously, in order to wait for inspection instructions, we had to travel several times between customs and railway stations. Now, through the app, we can view the real-time status of container clearance and logistics updates, and operate the entire process on our mobile devices, saving time and effort. ”Bian Mei, the customs manager of Xi'an Youconvenient International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd., said.
At the same time, precise policy reduction injects capital "vitality" into enterprises.
Recently, a China Europe freight train carrying Siberian spruce planks arrived in Xi'an. After being reviewed by Xi'an Station Customs, the domestic freight of over 180000 yuan for this batch of goods was not included in the dutiable value, directly reducing the tax burden of the enterprise by over 15000 yuan. According to statistics, in the first ten months of this year, Xi'an Station Customs deducted 11.907 million yuan in freight for 378 import enterprises.
The reduction of railway freight charges for the domestic section of the China Europe freight train's return transportation is an important measure taken by the General Administration of Customs to promote stable and high-quality foreign trade and help enterprises alleviate difficulties and reduce costs. Xi'an Station Customs has set up specialized business positions to carry out "one-on-one" declaration guidance, guiding enterprises to declare domestic freight deductions and allowing tax incentives to directly reach enterprises.
The tax refund policy for land departure ports has also brought tangible benefits to enterprises. Wei Kai, the general manager of Xi'an Qinbao Luoji E-commerce Co., Ltd., said, "This batch of goods was shipped from Xi'an just a day ago, and today the tax refund has been received, greatly easing the financial pressure on the company
Through this policy, the average turnover time of enterprise funds has been shortened by nearly one month compared to traditional models, with a speed increase of 90%. In the first ten months of this year, Xi'an Railway Station Customs issued 81000 customs declarations for port of departure tax refund business to 25000 enterprises nationwide, with a total value of approximately 22.11 billion yuan.
Over the past year, Xi'an Station Customs has created an efficient and convenient customs clearance environment through intelligent supervision and institutional innovation, helping the China Europe freight trains run faster and faster. In the first ten months of this year, the number of China Europe freight trains (Xi'an) in operation reached 5063, a year-on-year increase of 16.2%, and the core indicators remained first in the country.
Currently, Xi'an International Port Station has become the first station in China to have a China Europe freight train operation volume exceeding 30000 trains, with a total operation volume exceeding 1/4 of the cumulative total operation volume of China Europe freight trains in the country. Xi'an Railway Station Customs has innovated its service mode, opened up a "direct train" for customs clearance services, established a "green channel" to provide rapid response services for export enterprises, and set up a 7 × 24-hour customs clearance guarantee special team to ensure efficient customs clearance of goods 24/7, helping the first China Europe freight train (Xi'an Duisburg) to operate with encrypted timetable trains both domestically and internationally.
As of November 13th, Xi'an has operated a total of 651 fully scheduled China Europe freight trains, exceeding 50% of the total number of trains operated nationwide. The transportation time of the full timetable train is reduced by more than 30% compared to ordinary trains, and the transportation cost is less than 1/5 of air freight.
The trans Caspian direction train has become a new highlight. As of the end of October this year, Xi'an has operated a total of 563 China Europe trains in the direction of crossing the Caspian Sea, accounting for over 80% of the total number of cross Caspian trains in the country. This "rail sea rail" intermodal transport channel connecting China, Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Türkiye to Europe has significantly shortened the transport time compared with the traditional route, with the fastest time of only 11 days. Driven by a series of innovative policies, Xi'an International Port not only attracts local enterprises in Shaanxi to accelerate their aggregation, but also radiates and drives goods from East China, South China, North China and other regions to gather here, and the aggregation effect is becoming increasingly prominent.
"Xi'an Railway Station Customs will continue to promote projects such as the second phase of the intelligent logistics supervision system and the reconstruction and expansion of the comprehensive inspection site, continue to innovate the supervision method, improve the supervision efficiency, fully guarantee the efficient operation of China Europe Express (Xi'an), and contribute to Shaanxi's deeper integration into the" the Belt and Road "pattern, and continue to expand high-level opening up." Wang Liying, head of Xi'an Railway Station Customs, said.
Xi'an Customs deepens the cultivation of free trade 'experimental fields'
Problem oriented promotion of regulatory innovation
The construction of free trade pilot zones is an important strategic measure taken by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to promote reform and opening up in the new era. The "Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 15th Five Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development" passed at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has made clear arrangements for "actively expanding independent opening up" and proposed "implementing the strategy of upgrading free trade pilot zones".
In the Shaanxi Pilot Free Trade Zone, Xi'an Customs has vigorously carried out regulatory system innovation. Since the beginning of this year, three innovative measures have been filed with the General Administration of Customs, including the "Exit Wooden Packaging Quarantine Intelligent Management System", "International Express Full Chain Digital Intelligent Supervision System", and "Customs Aviation Intelligent Connection Digital Platform".
The innovation of regulatory models has brought about an improvement in customs clearance efficiency, making enterprises feel full of gains.
From "two days" to "two hours", this is a brand new experience created by the "Exit Wooden Packaging Quarantine Intelligent Management System". Based on the "one item, one code, one batch, one certificate" management mode, this system assigns a unique traceability QR code to each wooden packaging that has completed pest control treatment, achieving full traceability from production, processing to use.
Previously, handling quarantine for wooden packaging required running through multiple departments and taking one or two days. Now, sitting in front of a computer and clicking on it, one can quickly obtain the qualification certificate and traceability code, saving more than half of the time and cost, "said the person in charge of Shaanxi Chuanshun Packaging Co., Ltd.
Through the "Shaanxi Electronic Port" platform, enterprises can complete all declaration processes such as filling out quarantine information for wooden packaging for export and reporting results. The system automatically compares and intelligently reviews, reducing the overall process time from the previous calculation in days to the current calculation in hours. According to statistics, the average clearance time for enterprises has been reduced by 70%, and the cost losses caused by packaging issues have decreased by about 60%.
This system gives us a 'thousand mile eye' that allows us to interact with enterprises at any time, conduct remote audits and real-time evaluations, and achieve full process supervision before, during, and after the event, "said the person in charge of the Animal and Plant Quarantine Department of Xi'an Customs in a vivid metaphor.
Not only the quarantine of wooden packaging, but also the supervision of inbound express delivery is accelerating.
At the customs express supervision site of Xi'an Xianyang Airport under the jurisdiction of Xi'an Customs, customs officers click the mouse and the CT image and risk warning of the package are displayed in real-time on the computer screen. A package labeled with courtyard streetlights triggers an automatic alarm system. The customs officer enlarged the image and confirmed the suspected controlled knives within a few minutes. This was unimaginable in the past. Previously, the image of each shipment only stayed for 6 seconds, and we had to take turns staring at the screen, afraid of missing any suspicious items, "said the on-site customs officer.
At present, the "International Express Full Chain Digital Intelligent Supervision System" independently developed by Xi'an Customs has achieved visual display of the entire logistics chain of express shipments from overseas, including the international segment, domestic segment, and delivery segment. With the help of this system, the efficiency of manual inspection has been increased by 34%, and the clearance speed of express parcels has been nearly doubled, with nearly 30000 parcels being inspected and released in a single day at Xi'an Air Port.
Benefiting from digital empowerment, the quality and efficiency of inbound aircraft supervision and passenger clearance have also been greatly improved.
The "Guanhang Intelligent Connected Digital Platform" is a data sharing and business collaboration platform jointly created by Xi'an Xianyang Airport Customs and China Eastern Airlines Co., Ltd., which realizes the direct connection and transmission of China Eastern Airlines' international passenger flight data and customs supervision system. Through this platform, customs can obtain passenger information before the flight arrives and classify and manage passengers according to their risk levels, allowing low-risk passengers to achieve seamless clearance. Airlines can complete the automatic declaration of inbound aircraft and self print the "Quarantine Certificate for Inbound and Outbound Aviation Enterprises" through the platform.
In the past, airlines had to send personnel to the customs to handle certificates. Now, after the system review is approved, it can be printed in the office and historical records can be queried in real time, "said the person in charge of the Customs Operations Control Department at Xi'an Xianyang Airport. The entire process from online declaration, system review to terminal printing has been compressed from over 20 minutes to less than 3 minutes.
(Translated from China National Times on December 12, 2025)