Fujian Ports: Port of Fuzhou, Xiamen, Quanzhou, Putian

Fujian has a long coastline of 3,752 kilometers (2,331 miles), ranked the second in China. There are 125 large and small Fujian ports in total, of which Fuzhou Port, Xiamen Port, Quanzhou Port and Putian Port are the largest ones.
 

Fuzhou Port is a main Fujian port for international trade, and in particular important for Fujian-Taiwan trade. Fuzhou Port was firstly built in 110 BC in Western Han Dynasty (202 BC - 9 AD). In 1842, Fuzhou was established as one of the five earliest international commercial ports in modern time.

Fuzhou Port is composed of the ports in the lower reach of Minjiang River and seaports. The river ports include Taijiang, Mawei, Qingzhou, Zaidong, Songmen and Chang’an. The seaports are distributed in the deep-water bays such as Fuqing Bay around the Minjiang River estuary, which are Jiangyin, Songxia, Luoyuan Bay and Pingtan. Sandu'ao, Baima, Sansha and Shacheng in Ningde were merged into Fuzhou Port in 2012 as well. Besides, Sandu’ao is a world-class natural deep-water port famous for beautiful landscapes, attracting many tourists every year, and visitors can also go sightseeing to the military port there.

At present, Fuzhou Port has 22 berths above 50,000 tons out of total 121 costal berths, with a maximum berth capacity of 320,000 tons. Freight ships are available to/ from ports along China's coast and on the Yangtze River. The international routes have reached 75, covering Taiwan, Europe, America, Japan, Singapore, Philippines, and Thailand.

In addition to water transport, Fuzhou Port is connected with Fuma Railway, Waifu Railway, and Wenzhou-Fuzhou Railway. With the complex railway network, goods can be transferred to Yingtan-Xiamen Railway and Shanghai-Kunming Railway, and then to all the major cities in the country.

What’s more, Fuzhou Port Highway is connected to the highway network in the whole of Fujian, and to the national highway network of China through National Highway 104, National Highway 316, National Highway 324, Fuzhou-Yinchuan Expressway, Beijing-Taipei Expressway and Shenyang-Haikou Expressway.
 

Located in Jinmen Bay, southeast of Fujian Province, Xiamen Port is a key Fujian port by the East China Sea and the marine gateway to Fujian. It faces Penghu Islands and Taiwan across Taiwan Strait. It has two parts: the inner port and the outer port, for domestic and foreign trade in Xiamen and Fujian Province. It also undertakes the responsibility of transfering materials to neighboring Jiangxi Province by water.

Now Xiamen Port has 10 larger port zones of Dongdu, Haicang and Xiang'an in Xiamen, and Zhaoyin, Houshi, Shima, Gulei, Dongshan, Yunxiao and Zhaoan in Zhangzhou. Xiamen Port has built 165 berths, out of which 76 berths have a capacity of over 10,000 tons, including seventeen 100,000-ton berths and five 200,000-ton berths. By 2019, it completed a throughput of 217 million tons.

Xiamen Port has opened more than 145 container routes, including 92 international routes, among which 57 routes to the countries along the Maritime Silk Road. There are also 12 domestic coastal lines to convey cargoes imported and exported, and 42 domestic trade lines.

If tourists want to travel to Taiwan, there are over 30 passenger ships travel between Xiamen Wutong Port and Kinmen from 08:00-17:30. City buses 6, 82 or 439 can take passengers to Wutong Port Stop.

The Xiamen Port Railway extends directly to Yingtan-Xiamen Railway, Fuzhou-Xiamen Railway, Xiamen-Shenzhen Railway and Longyan-Xiamen Railway. For land transportation, Xiamen Port is linked to highway network through Gaoji Seawall, Amoy Bridge and Haicang Bridge. It takes only half an hour to get to Xiamen Gaoqi Airport from Dongdu and Haicang port zones.
 

Quanzhou Port is a Fujian port on the estuary of Jinjiang River, in the southeast of Quanzhou City. Its range reaches Nei'ao, Meizhou Bay in the north, and Lianhe River, Weitou Bay in the south, with a 421 kilometers (262 miles) long coastline. It used to be the world's largest port for 400 years as the starting point of Maritime Silk Road, enjoying the equal popularity of Alexandria in Egypt in ancient times.

At present, Quanzhou Port still tops the list in China with 5 major port zones of Xiaocu, Douwei, Quanzhou Bay, Shenhu Bay and Weitou Bay, with 20 smaller ports and 92 berths, including Xiutu, Hanjiang, Shihu, Neigang, Houzhu, Huajin ports in Quanzhou Bay, Xiangzhi, Yongning, Shenhu ports in Shenhu Bay, Weitou, Shuitou, Jinjing, Dongshi, Anhai and Shijing ports in Weitou Bay. Among these ports, Houzhu Port is the closest to Quanzhou downtown with convenient water and land transportation thus to be the main Quanzhou port for external traffic and trade.

There are 108 container routes in Quanzhou Port, including 30 foreign trade lines and 78 domestic trade lines, including 6 special routes to the countries along Maritime Silk Road. The freight ships can get to over 60 countries and regions in the world, such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Busan in South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and India. Quanzhou Port mainly imports quarried stones, chemical materials, foods, coconut shell charcoals and other goods from countries along the Maritime Silk Road, and exports light industrial materials, clothing, peripheral goods and so on to those countries.

What’s more, the passenger ships from Quanzhou to Kinmen, Taiwan start from Shijing Port in Weitou Bay. 8 ships go to Kinmen Shuitou Port, and 7 ships return back to Shijing Port each day. Passengers can take Quanzhou city bus k207 to Shijing Quanjin Wharf.

There are Xingguo-Quanzhou Railway and Petrochemicals Special Railway to transport cargoes and containers. Quanzhou-Sanming Expressway and its tributary lines, highway between Quanzhou and Xiamen can also help to dredge the transportation of Quanzhou Ports.
 

Putian has had a port since the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420 - 589 AD), which is also a famous Fujian port along the coast. Today's Putian Port covers a range over the northern waters of Meizhou Island and its relevant coastal zones, including four large port zones of Xiuyu, Dongwu, Sanjiangkou and Fengting, and nine smaller ports of Hanjiang, Wenjia, Gongxia, Jiangkou, Nanri, Shicheng, Dongpan, Qianhai and Houhai.

Putian Port possesses more than 100 berths in total, most of which are in Xiuyu and Dongwu ports. An 80 million tons coal wharf and a 25 million tons heavy cargos wharf are in Dongwu Port. The ships in Putian Port once only severed for domestic logistics industry. In 2018, it began to open to foreign ships.

There are mainly two expressways of Quanzhou-Nanning and Meizhou Island-Yongchun, and two major railways of Xiangtang-Putian and Zhangzhou-Quanzhou leading here. The Fuzhou-Xiamen Expressway is quite close as well. The bulks and containers are transported through these ways from and to the cities around China.