Nansha new cruise port to open in November

Guangzhou Nansha International Cruise Home Port[Photo/gznsnews.com.cn]

 The highly-anticipated Guangzhou Nansha International Cruise Home Port is basically completed.

Some of the main parts of the project have been exposed through the curtain of “Xiangyun Yarn" even while the interior decoration is under construction. Although most of the main building's external walls of the home port are surrounded by construction nets, it can be clearly seen that the exterior works have been basically formed, and some external walls and glass curtain walls have also been installed.

The cruise homeport will be in test operation in October this year. At present, the port can dock one cruise vessel of 25,000 tons and another of 100,000 tons.

Huang Yumin, general manager of China Travel Cruises Homeport Investment Development Co., Ltd., said that it will become one of the largest domestic cruise port complexes in the country and will be able to dock the world's largest luxury cruise ship. It is expected that the number of inbound and outbound tourists will reach 750,000 to one million a year.

There are a number of highlights in the cruise home port that deserve attention. In terms of transportation, it will be closely integrated with the metro and Hong Kong and Macao water passenger transportation, providing lots of ways for people to get around. The cruise terminal and the Nansha Passenger Port Station of Metro Line 4 will be connected through the underground passage. It will be the first domestic cruise port in the Chinese mainland that is seamlessly connected to the metro.

Its number of port inspection channels ranks first in China, and the passenger self-service clearance rate will exceed 50%. With various pieces of intelligent and high-tech inspection equipment, the customs clearance efficiency will be effectively improved. The border clearance time will be no more than five seconds.

"The third floor and above will have platforms providing the public with leisure, sightseeing space, entertainment, catering and other services. It is a good place for citizens to enjoy sea views," Huang Yumin said.

Chen Hongxian, director general of the Guangzhou Port Authority, said "Guangzhou's cruise economy has experienced rapid development since November 2015. It maintained the third largest number of cruise passengers in and out of Hong Kong since the first year of operation. In particular, when the number of cruise passengers in the whole country dropped by 1.2% and the number of berthed cruises in Guangzhou decreased by 23.0%, Guangzhou still achieved a 19% increase in passenger number in 2018."

At present, Guangzhou is studying and optimizing its cruise industry policy and formulating medium and long-term plans. In the future, in accordance with the needs of a healthy and sustainable market,Guangzhou will strive for optimizing customs clearance policies such as 144 hours of customs clearance for cruise passengers, and will establish a cruise tourism emergency protection system with more personalized and convenient cruise tourism service.