【Editor's note】In the new era, New Jinan is facing a major opportunity to implement the major national strategy of ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, and shoulders the important mission of accelerating the construction of a strong provincial capital of socialist modernization in the new era of "strong, new, rich, beautiful and high". Jinan Daily Newspaper Group's current affairs and media studio has set up a "Baoyan" column in the group's media, with the positioning of "in-depth observation and understanding of Jinan", focusing on the central work of the municipal party committee and the municipal government, grasping the general trend of development, keeping up with current political hot spots, starting from fresh examples, thinking from a higher position, so that readers can understand the news in the news, know the considerations in decision-making, and identify the deep meaning in the policy, so as to gather more wisdom and strength to accelerate the modernization of the provincial capital.
Inland waterway shipping has the advantages of large transportation capacity, small land occupation and low energy consumption, and plays an important role in promoting economic development, optimizing industrial layout, and opening up services to the outside world.
At present, Shandong is speeding up the construction of an intensive, efficient, safe, convenient, smart and green modern inland waterway shipping system. As a major transportation infrastructure construction project in Shandong and a key construction project in Shandong Demonstration Zone, the Xiaoqing River Resumption Project is a golden water transport channel that runs through the central industrial corridor of Shandong Province and has the conditions for sea-river intermodal transportation.
In 2023, Shandong will elevate inland waterway shipping to a major provincial strategy, bringing new opportunities for the development of Xiaoqing River shipping. On April 1 this year, the "Measures for the Management of Xiaoqing River Traffic in Shandong Province" was implemented, which improved the traffic management system of Xiaoqing River, encouraged and supported the development of direct routes between the Xiaoqing River and the sea, and provided strong policy support for the smooth navigation of the Xiaoqing River and the safety of shipping.
This year, Shandong will continue to play a financial guiding role in promoting the combined transportation of public water and iron water in the Xiaoqing River, improve transportation efficiency, and encourage more ships to sail the Xiaoqing River. The implementation of a package of "real money" policies and measures, such as incentives and subsidies for the operation of sailing ships and increased incentives and subsidies for new energy ships, will help the high-quality development of Xiaoqing River shipping and promote Xiaoqing River shipping to gradually enter normal operation.
The Qing River has resumed its eastward flow, and its navigation policies and details have been attracting much attention. What benefits will the resumption of navigation of the Xiaoqing River bring to ships, and what kind of shipping vision will this "golden waterway" outline in the future?
Through the river to the sea, revitalize inland shipping
As the only golden waterway in Shandong that has multiple functions such as water and land combined transportation, sea-river combined transportation, flood control and flood control, and farmland irrigation, the Xiaoqing River, which originated in Jinan, has not only transported water to the downstream for nearly 900 years, but also promoted the prosperity and development of the economy and culture along the river.
Nowadays, Shandong regards the development of inland waterway shipping as an important part of accelerating the construction of Shandong Demonstration Zone, a transportation powerhouse, and a national and provincial water network pilot area. Among them, as a new land-sea channel in the land of Qilu, the Xiaoqing River resumption project has strung up the provincial capital Jinan and Binzhou, Zibo, Dongying, and Weifang.
On July 4, 2023, the ship "Luqing 001" departing from Boxing Port successfully arrived at Jinan Port after 3 days. This is a moment of historic significance, marking the successful completion of the first full-line no-load trial voyage of Xiaoqinghe with a total length of 237 kilometers after 26 years of suspension of sailing. This "golden waterway" excavated in the Southern Song Dynasty ushered in a new life.
With a total investment of 13.593 billion yuan, the construction content of the Xiaoqing River resumption project mainly includes the construction of 169.2 kilometers of Class III waterways, 4 locks and 39 bridges, the transformation of facilities such as control gates, inverted siphons, and cross-river pipelines, as well as the construction of navigation aids such as navigation beacons and digital waterways. The project started in July 2020, the main project will be completed in June 2023, and will be fully completed in January 2024.
On February 26 this year, the delivery and acceptance meeting of the PPP project of the Xiaoqing River resumption project was held in Jinan, and the Xiaoqing River resumption project successfully passed the delivery and acceptance, laying the foundation for the official navigation operation of the Xiaoqing River.
This new land-sea corridor connects the China-Europe Express by land, and the waterway can be integrated into the Maritime Silk Road through the port. For a province like Shandong, where the sea is strong and the river is weak, revitalizing the inland waterway shipping represented by the Xiaoqing River will greatly promote the social and economic development along the route, improve the comprehensive transportation system of Shandong Province, and help the high-quality development of the Shandong Demonstration Zone, a transportation power.
Large-scale transportation, highlighting the advantages of shipping
The resumption process of Xiaoqing River has gone through the stages of no-load sea trial, half-load sea trial and heavy load maiden voyage.
It is worth noting that during the half-load sea trial, the Xiaoqing River channel was connected to the China-Europe train, realizing water-rail combined transportation. In the first voyage of heavy load, the goods shipped from Yantai Longkou were replaced by inland river vessels in Weifang Yangkou Port, and the river-sea combined transport mode was officially opened.
On March 17 this year, with a loud whistle, a dry cargo ship "Hongyuan Sailing", carrying large parts of a 1,200-ton mast crane, slowly sailed out of the Xiaoqing River channel and headed for the vast sea area. This is the first "direct river-to-sea" transportation business since the official operation.
Compared with the traditional transportation mode of "land + sea" for out-of-gauge goods, the "river-sea direct" transportation mode not only greatly reduces transportation costs and improves efficiency, but also plays a positive role in reducing the pressure of land transportation, environmental pollution and transportation risks.
At present, the Xiaoqing River Basin has successfully organized and completed the transportation of bauxite, grain, steel coils and other related goods, especially the large-scale transportation tasks from Jinan to Hainan Basuo Port and Wenzhou, Zhejiang, realizing the real sense of "direct river to sea", highlighting the shipping advantages of Xiaoqing River. Recently, the Xiaoqing River Basin will also complete the third voyage of direct river-sea large-scale cargo transportation tasks.
The cities along the Xiaoqing River have active industrial development and huge transportation demand. After the transfer to the operation period, Shandong will promote the gradual normalization of Xiaoqing River shipping through a series of measures such as the introduction of market cultivation period policies, the establishment of a navigable water guarantee mechanism, and the cultivation of Xiaoqing River shipping capacity for two consecutive years. It is predicted that by 2030 and 2040, the freight demand of Xiaoqinghe will reach 40.2 million tons and 48.2 million tons, respectively.
The throughput of 10 million tons brings not only the revival of commerce and trade, but also the prosperity of the region. According to the overall plan, 4 ports and 11 operation areas are planned along the Xiaoqing River, with a comprehensive throughput capacity of 79.6 million tons. Take the Port of Jinan, for example. Its overall planning port coastline is 6,170 meters, with the direct hinterland of Jinan City and the indirect hinterland of Liaocheng City and the eastern part of Dezhou City and its surrounding areas. The throughput is expected to be 10.4 million tons in 2025 and 20.7 million tons in 2035.
After the completion of Jinan Port, it will give full play to the leading role of transportation infrastructure, enhance the breadth and depth of participation in regional economic integration, and finally form a new trend of attracting industries with ports and optimizing the industrial layout of cities with industrial agglomeration, so as to realize the efficient and coordinated development of ports, industries and cities.
"Real money", general aviation to reduce costs and increase efficiency
In order to give full play to the comprehensive benefits of Xiaoqing River, last year, Shandong issued a package of policies to support the high-quality development of inland waterway shipping, taking Xiaoqinghe as a key object and increasing the cultivation of inland waterway shipping market.
Among them, the "Several Policies on Supporting the High-quality Development of Inland Waterway Shipping" clarifies two types of policies: rewards and subsidies and factor guarantees. In particular, relevant policies have been introduced for the cultivation period of the Xiaoqinghe market, involving preferential treatment of waterway lock fees, incentives and subsidies for the construction of navigation ships, and preferential policies for port loading and unloading. For example, for ships sailing along the Xiaoqing River as the port of departure and destination, the loading and unloading fee at the coastal and inland ports of Shandong shall be charged at 80% of the current standard, and shall not exceed the charging standard of similar domestic ports.
This year, Shandong will further coordinate funds and use policies to focus on promoting the green, intensive and large-scale development of Xiaoqinghe transportation. For example, in terms of transportation, before the end of June 2026, a construction bonus of up to 960,000 yuan will be given to each new energy ship specially built for navigation on the Xiaoqing River. In 2024, new energy ships from coastal ports to the main city port area of Jinan Port and Zhangqiu Port will be given a route reward of 48,000 yuan per voyage. The two awards and subsidies are 20 percentage points higher than those of conventionally powered ships.
In order to build a demonstration model of Xiaoqing River and sea intermodal transport and accelerate the adjustment of transportation structure, Shandong encourages and supports the development of direct routes of Xiaoqing River and sea, focusing on reducing costs and increasing efficiency, and reducing logistics costs in a targeted manner. Among them, focusing on multimodal transport, according to the standard of 3 million yuan per project, rewards will be given to the inland waterway shipping projects involving Xiaoqing River in the pilot of the provincial multimodal transport "one single system", so as to promote the combined transportation of public water and iron and water in Xiaoqing River and improve transportation efficiency.
Focusing on improving transportation capacity and attracting cargo sources, Shandong has also given clear support. For example, by the end of June 2026, the policy of incentives and subsidies for the passage of waterways and locks will be implemented, and 60% to 100% of the tolls and gates will be given to ships in stages. A subsidy of up to 4.5 million yuan per kilometer will be given to the newly built and reconstructed highways between the newly started inland ports and the nearest national and provincial highways, so as to improve the radiation capacity and scope of Xiaoqinghe Port and drive the surrounding goods to be transported through Xiaoqinghe Port.
The "Measures for the Management of Traffic on the Xiaoqing River in Shandong Province", which came into effect on April 1, has improved the traffic management system of the Xiaoqing River, improved the water transportation infrastructure guarantee system, and clarified the water guarantee for navigation of the Xiaoqing River. In the future, Xiaoqinghe shipping will highlight the concept of green and low-carbon development, encourage water transport enterprises to develop container and new energy and clean energy transportation, and support water transport enterprises to adopt closed transportation methods such as containers for coal, bauxite and other polluting goods.
A series of preferential policies and safeguard measures for Xiaoqing River shipping have continuously promoted the cost reduction and efficiency increase of Xiaoqing River shipping, which has boosted market confidence.
The future is promising, to build a national high-grade waterway
Inland waterway shipping is an important part of Shandong's comprehensive transportation system, and an important engine to attract industrial agglomeration and stimulate economic development. According to the "Outline of the Comprehensive Three-dimensional Transportation Network Plan of Shandong Province (2023-2035)", Shandong will build a modern and high-quality comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network with sufficient capacity, extensive coverage, reasonable structure, convenient and smooth, efficient connection, green intensive, intelligent and advanced, safe and reliable, and accelerate the construction of Shandong Demonstration Zone, a transportation powerhouse, and a pilot area for green, low-carbon and high-quality development. Among them, "building an inland waterway transport network connecting rivers and seas" has been specially deployed as an important goal.
In terms of inland waterways, Shandong will improve the capacity of trunk waterways, expand the scope of waterways, and plan to form an overall layout of "one vertical, two horizontal, three trunks and multiple branches" inland waterway network with the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, Xiaoqing River and Xinwanfu River as the backbone and other branch lines as supplements, with a total mileage of about 3,100 kilometers. The Beijing-Hangzhou Canal and the Xiaoqing River are connected to the long-term prospect of being a national high-grade waterway. In terms of inland ports, the level of specialization and scale of inland ports will be improved, and an inland port system will be planned to be formed with Jining Port as the core, Zaozhuang Port, Heze Port, Tai'an Port and Jinan Port as auxiliary, and other ports as supplements.
The Three-Year Action Plan for Accelerating the High-Quality Development of Inland Waterway Shipping in Shandong Province (2023-2025) clearly puts forward future development goals. Among them, the Xiaoqing River will be built into a new land-sea channel connecting the provincial capital, connecting Luzhong and river-sea combined transport. By 2025, the energy level of Shandong's inland waterway shipping infrastructure will be significantly improved, the service guarantee system will be more perfect, the comparative advantages in the comprehensive transportation system will be fully utilized, and the role in promoting regional economic and social development will be more prominent.
The Xiaoqing River, which connects the river to the sea, is helping Jinan and other inland cities to develop along the river and prosper towards the sea, promoting Shandong to continuously expand the hinterland of inland port logistics network services, and better integrate into the overall pattern of regional development in the country. (Jinan Newspaper Current Affairs and Media Studio Reporter: Fan Lixin)