Shenzhen has the most ports, the largest entry-and-exit passenger volume and the largest vehicle volume in China. It is the sole city in China with sea, air and land ports.
Sea, Air and Land Ports
Shenzhen has built 17 outbound ports, of which 12 are first-class ports approved by the State Council. They include China’s largest land passenger port Luohu Checkpoint, the largest land cargo port Huanggang Checkpoint, second-largest container terminal Yantian Port, and fourth-largest airport Bao’an International Airport. Other land ports include Wenjindu and Shatoujiao checkpoints. There are seven other seaports including Shekou, Mawan, Chiwan, Dongjiaotou, Meisha and Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant ferries.
Shenzhen Customs
Shenzhen Customs has witnessed major and significant changes over the past century, since the Qing Dynasty Government established a checkpoint by the Shenzhen River during the late Qing Dynasty.
Shenzhen Customs, one of China’s entry-and-exit customs regulators, covers business from Shenzhen itself and the Huiyang and Huidong regions in Huizhou.
In 2006, 153 million people and 14.3376 million vehicles passed through various border checkpoints. With automatic channel checking systems now in place, it takes only four to five seconds to complete a check of a vehicle going through a checkpoint.
Port Transport
The Shenzhen ports now have a coastline of 15 kilometers with nine commercial port areas, including Shekou and Yantian. They have 141 berths, of which 53 berths can accommodate vessels above 10,000 tons. More than 40 international container companies have established 150 international shipping lines in Shenzhen.
In 2006, container transport in the Shenzhen Port totaled 18.47 million TEUs, 14 percent up over the previous year, making Shenzhen the fourth-largest terminal port in the world.
The Shekou and Fuyong ferries have opened shuttle routes to Hong Kong. Passengers passing through Shenzhen Port in 2006 totaled 3.45 million people.
Civil Aviation
Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport is one of the first-class civil airports in China, and has become one of the country’s four busiest airports. It operates more than 110 international and domestic air routes, of which 14 are international ones. Passengers traveling through the airport totaled 18.36 million people in 2006, a 12.7 percent increase over the previous year. The airport has ranked fourth busiest airport in China over the past five consecutive years in terms of passenger volume. It is now on the Global Top 100 list of airports in the world.
Railway Transport
Shenzhen has an extensive railway network. Within China, it took the lead in opening the quasi-high speed trains connecting Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Two arterial railways cutting across the Chinese continent, the Beijing-Guangzhou railway and the Beijing-Kowloon railway, meet in Shenzhen. In terms of long-distance transportation, Shenzhen has regular train services to Beijing, Zhengzhou, Hefei, Jiujiang, Wuhan, Changsha, Yueyang, Zhaoqing, Shaoguan, Maoming, Heyuan, Meizhou, Shantou, and Hong Kong.
Metro Transport
Phase I of Shenzhen Metro was finished and came into service in 2004. Shenzhen Metro Line 4, jointly constructed by Shenzhen and Hong Kong, will go into operation in 2008.
According to official plans, the city will build a Metro railway network of 238.7 kilometers by 2010. It will enable 50 percent of Shenzhen residents to take advantage of the Metro while traveling around the city. The total line transfers required within the network to reach any destination in the city will not exceed three.
Road Transport
Roads and expressways in Shenzhen form a network which connects with the rest of the Pearl River Delta region.
Shenzhen has 44 bus stations and 95 registered transportation companies. There are more than 150 shuttle buses between Shenzhen and Guangzhou and more than 300 shuttle buses between Shenzhen and Hong Kong each day. Shenzhen has nearly 70,000 cargo vehicles, with a transport capacity totaling 200,000 tons. The road container transport witnessed a rapid growth with 83 registered companies and 2,232 vehicles.
Cargo and Passenger Transport
Air cargo and rail cargo businesses in Shenzhen kept their growth momentum in 2006. The port and air cargo transport increased greatly, by nearly 20 percent.
Public Transportation
There are more than 2,800 kilometers of roads and more than 200 kilometers of expressways in Shenzhen. The bus rapid transit (BRT) system has shortened the travel time inside and outside the Special Economic Zone to half an hour and from Shenzhen to neighboring cities to around an hour.
By the end of 2006, the city had a total of 19,493 public buses, of which 7,305 were big buses, 1,883 were mini buses and 10,305 were taxis.