"Hello, Shenzhen Port welcomes you home." At the passenger port of entry at Man Kam Ferry Port, the first inbound Hong Kong passenger smiled and received small gifts such as roses and epidemic prevention gift bags handed by the staff, and left a "very happy" signature on the memorial board of the customs clearance message. Since January 8, the Shenzhen Port has resumed normal personnel exchanges between the mainland and Hong Kong in a phased and orderly manner. After more than 700 days, Wenjin Ferry Port officially resumed travel inspection and customs clearance at 7 a.m. on the 8th.
"I haven't been back for a long time, I'm homesick"
At about 7 a.m., at the Shenzhen Wenjin Ferry Port, Ms. Fang, a Shenzhen resident, became the first passenger to leave the country after the port resumed "customs clearance". Having not been to Hong Kong for three years, she plans to spend a week in Hong Kong to reunite with her family. The on-site customs clearance was carried out in an orderly manner, and Ms. Fang successfully cleared customs and went to Hong Kong within a few minutes after carrying out customs clearance and inspection.
On the other hand, in the arrival hall on the first floor, many passengers who passed through Hong Kong said that they were very excited to return to the mainland after three years, and their language even looked a little pale in the face of the deepest emotions. "For three years, my daughter has been studying in Hong Kong, and my wife and I work in the mainland, and now we are very excited and don't know what to say." Mr. and Mrs. Cheng are Hong Kong natives, and as skipping instructors, he and his wife work in the mainland and their children study in Hong Kong. He recently returned to Hong Kong and picked up his child today.
"Work started again, I hope to return to my pre-pandemic life as soon as possible"
At 7:33 a.m., at Shenzhen Wenjin Ferry Port, the first cross-border bus entered the country.
Mr. Yin, the truck driver who had just passed through the Wenjin ferry port, was very excited and made frequent celebratory gestures to the media cameras. Mr. Yin said that he was very happy to be able to re-clear customs, because he had not returned to his hometown for three years, and he was ready to go back during the Spring Festival holiday this year.
Cross-boundary trucks are an important link between the Mainland and Hong Kong, among which Man Kam Du Port is the earliest highway port opened in Shenzhen after the reform and opening up for cross-border freight vehicles, and is an important channel for the transportation of fresh products from the Mainland to Hong Kong, with vegetables, live animals and poultry accounting for more than 80% of the Hong Kong market.
Although the freight between the two places has been as usual during the epidemic, strict fixed-point management and closed-loop operations have brought considerable pressure to the cross-border transportation industry. "We are hand-to-hand, running to collect money for one trip, and basically only one trip a day during the epidemic, and our income is not as good as before." Mr. Choi, a 52-year-old Hong Kong cross-boundary driver, has been engaged in the cross-border transportation of fresh produce at the Man Kam Ferry Port for seven years. "During the epidemic, Hong Kong drivers cannot stay overnight in the mainland. We often went to the lounge in the afternoon and sat until dawn. He smiled wryly and added, "What's even harder is the stranded trucks, blocked freight, and sometimes even idle at home, with no work to drive." ”
According to the Shenzhen Port Office, from the 8th, the Guangdong-Hong Kong cross-border truck transportation measures will be adjusted, all cross-border truck drivers' entry qualifications will be restored, the normal management of cross-border transportation before the epidemic will be restored, and inbound truck drivers will no longer conduct nucleic acid sampling at Shenzhen Port. "It's really nice to be back to normal customs clearance now." Mr. Cai said that now that he can finally clear customs smoothly between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and the trucks that were stalled earlier can start again, he is full of expectations, hoping that life can return to the pre-epidemic state as soon as possible.
"From the beginning of the suspension of customs clearance at the port, we are always ready for resumption"
"Get in place immediately, prepare the switch, and go." At 6:30 a.m., at Shenzhen's Wenjindu Port, more than 20 customs workers stood solemnly in front of the party flag, and after a brief mobilization order, they lined up into the border inspection hall to welcome the first wave of inbound and outbound passengers in three years. At this time, the Wenjin Ferry Port was already brightly lit, strings of red lanterns were hung high along the road, the entry channel pulled up a banner of "Welcome Home", and a wish wall and small gifts were placed on the side of the passage, looking forward to the "wanderer" who "returned home".
"Since the day the port suspended travel inspection services, we have been preparing for the resumption of customs clearance." Tan Luming, second-level researcher of the Shenzhen Municipal Port Office, said that in order to ensure the smooth progress of this customs clearance, all districts and departments where the Shenzhen Port Office and the joint port are located have already made sufficient preparations and welcome Hong Kong compatriots to go home.
It is understood that in order to ensure the full restoration of travel inspection and customs clearance at the port, Wenjindu Customs has made sufficient preparations, scientifically and reasonably set up posts, allocate manpower, divide operation areas in accordance with the requirements of "one port, one policy", and carry out full-process investigation, full-equipment commissioning, and full-scenario emergency handling drills in advance to ensure that the supervision and disposal chain is complete and tight; Install 5G sanitary quarantine equipment in passenger corridors and passenger car corridors, which can be completed in as fast as 2 seconds in the first part of the health quarantine link, improving passengers' "senseless customs clearance" experience; Strengthen coordination and cooperation with port units in terms of passenger flow guidance, port control and emergency response, and work together to improve port travel inspection and customs clearance capabilities and service levels.
For the exit process that Shenzhen residents are most concerned about, Tan Luming, a second-level researcher of the Shenzhen Port Office, introduced that it is necessary to pass through three gates, the first gate is located in the exit channel of the port, and there will be 3 gates at the entrance of the passage, which can verify valid appointment vouchers and negative nucleic acid test results within 48 hours, and eligible citizens enter the port to continue customs clearance, otherwise they need to turn back; The second gate is located on the second floor, and health travel inspection needs to be completed, and a health declaration must be made through the WeChat mini program "Customs Passenger Fingertip Service" before customs clearance; The third gate is the responsibility of the border checkpoint to check valid documents, personnel, goods, etc.
The customs clearance capacity of passengers at Wenjin Ferry Port will be greatly increased
After the resumption of customs clearance, the customs clearance capacity of passengers at Wenjin Ferry Port will be greatly increased. Tam Luming expects that 200 passengers will go to Hong Kong via the Man Kam Ferry Port on the 8th, and 700 tourists will enter the mainland, and the passenger flow will increase steadily in the next few days. It is understood that the area of the passenger joint inspection building at Wenjin Ferry Port is about 7,000 square meters, with the first and second floors each 3,500 square meters, the first floor is the entry joint inspection hall, and the second floor is the exit joint inspection hall. After the transformation, there will be 5 vehicle entry and exit channels, 3 small lanes and 2 passenger lanes; There are 22 exit channels and 22 entry channels for passenger inspection, including 20 self-service channels; The designed customs clearance capacity is 30,000 times per day, and 3,000 small (bus) cars per day.
Written by: Nandu reporter Lin Min'er Chen Wencai Photo: Liu Youzhi