Jinan in Shandong province launched 1,006 China-Europe freight trains in 2023, making it the first city in the province to exceed 1,000 trains annually. [Photo/Dazhong News]

Over the past year, Jinan, capital of Shandong province, has made great strides in building itself into a vital regional logistics center in China, with the city's ports and logistics development continuing to flourish in both quantity and quality.

In 2023, Jinan accelerated construction on 59 modern logistics network infrastructure projects planned under the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), with a total investment of more than 14 billion yuan ($1.94 billion) and 20 projects being completed. Among them, nine projects with an annual investment of 4.4 billion yuan were completed within the year. Another 27 projects, such as incrementally supplementing the deficiencies of a commercial service-oriented national logistics hub and the construction of a national backbone cold chain logistics base, are currently in full swing.

Jinan launched a record 1,006 China-Europe freight trains throughout the year, making it the first city in the province to operate over 1,000 trains annually. The annual volume of transported goods was 975,000 tons, valued at $1.18 billion, up 28.39 percent and 57.46 percent year-on-year, respectively. A new route from Jinan to Vietnam was introduced, bringing the total number of routes to 14, reaching 48 cities in 21 countries.

The international flight network in Jinan is gradually recovering, with the Jinan Yaoqiang International Airport opening new international cargo routes to New York, the United States, and London, the United Kingdom, as well as international passenger flights to Sydney, Australia, and resuming flights to Bangkok, Thailand, Singapore, Nha Trang, Vietnam, Osaka, Japan, and other destinations. Passenger volume on key domestic rail routes reached 36,000 twenty-foot equivalent units, an increase of 106.25 percent year-on-year.

The operating income of logistics enterprises above designated size in Jinan reached 95.74 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.3 percent.

The city has also enhanced port efficiency through a series of favorable measures, such as pre-declaration and two-step declaration customs clearance and the international trade "single window".