Chongqing- Located in Chongqing Municipality, Southwestern China, a multimodal transport-branded international trade and logistics hub Guoyuan Port is accelerating the construction of a "green port" with nearly 100 million yuan (about 15 million U.S. dollars) of investment so far, according to the Chongqing Port Logistics Group Co., Ltd. on May 6. 

In Liangjiang New Area, Guoyuan Port is the largest port on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and a key point connecting the Yangtze River Economic Belt and regions along the Belt and Road Initiative. 

Recently, a freighter slowly stopped at the dock of Guoyuan Port. After tying the cable, a group of crew members cleaned up the sewage and garbage on the ship. Having sailed on the Yangtze River for more than ten years, the staff gradually developed this new habit. "Once upon a time, the sewage and garbage on the ship were disposed of easily, which caused a lot of pollution to the Yangtze River," said a staff. "After protecting the Yangtze River, Guoyuan Port began to build a 'green port.'"

The "green port" mentioned is a significant ecological and environmental protection project launched by Guoyuan Port in 2017. The Chongqing Port Logistics Group Co., Ltd. has invested about 4.5 million yuan in the water quality protection of the Yangtze River in the port area and nearly 100 million yuan in the construction of environmental protection facilities and equipment in the Guoyuan Port.

Since 2017, Guoyuan Port has successfully built six-ship pollutant receptions, transfer, and disposal devices for berthing vessels to extract domestic and oily sewage to prevent sewage pollution in the river. Two oil-water separator devices and shipboard garbage treatment equipment are also established. In 2019, Guoyuan Port took the lead in completing the shore power transformation of the terminal to avoid the use of generators during berthing and reduce the use of fuel oil, noise pollution, and air pollution.

Besides, the enterprise is also accelerating the green shipping development. In June 2020, Gangsheng 1005 round, affiliated with the enterprise, became the first liquefied natural gas (LNG), or diesel dual-fuel ship to pass through the Three Gorges ship locks, marking that ships using LNG clean fuel can sail the whole Yangtze River basin.

The vastly improved intelligent system also boosts the green development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Taking the paperless container platform as an example, after its launch in 2020, complicated paper documents are being replaced by electronic ones. The system realizes the digitization of papers and the impersonation of road gates as a whole, and there is no need for manual handover in the whole process.

Moreover, Guoyuan Port is designing a new intelligent green collection and distribution system in an attempt to reduce environmental pollution caused by traditional highway collection and distribution.

(Wang Lu, as an intern, also contributed to this report.)