Where rivers meet the sea, port operations stay busy.

During the National Day holiday, ports across China saw a steady stream of giant vessels and bustling loading and unloading activity, helping both domestic and international cargo move in and out quickly.

On the coast of the East China Sea, four giant container ships lined up side by side, fully automated bridge cranes lifted and lowered with precision, and more than a hundred automated guided vehicles moved silently back and forth.

In the first three days of the National Day holiday, the Phase IV automated terminal at Yangshan Deep-Water Port of the Shanghai International Shipping Center handled more than 79,000 TEUs in total, up 18.7% from the same period last year, and is expected to handle more than 180,000 TEUs over the full seven-day holiday.

"The entire process of ship berthing and departure, cargo loading and unloading, and route connections is intelligently scheduled, maximizing the throughput capacity of the port area," said Huang Hua, chief remote operator at Shangdong Branch of Shanghai International Port Group.

As an important hub linking the domestic and international circulations, ports can be described as a "barometer" of economic development.

In the first eight months of this year, China's total goods trade imports and exports rose 17.6% year on year, while port cargo throughput reached 12.06 billion tonnes, with foreign trade throughput up 2.8% year on year.

Beside Beibu Gulf, freight trains shuttle back and forth; in the Qinzhou port area, cargo ships line up in rows.

During the National Day holiday, the automated container terminal at Qinzhou Port in Guangxi maintained 24-hour continuous operations, with throughput expected to reach 45,000 TEUs from October 1 to 7.

On September 16, the Pinglu Canal officially opened to navigation, and the "circle of friends" in this sea area expanded accordingly: iron ore and auto parts from Yunnan and Guizhou travel south by rail-water intermodal transport to ASEAN, while coal and bauxite from Guinea and Laos travel north along the canal into the southwestern hinterland.

"The voyage to the sea has been greatly shortened. Recently, we have added many new customers from Guigang, Nanning and Baise in Guangxi, as well as from Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan," said Zhang Minghe, deputy manager of the operations department at Honggang Terminal Co., Ltd. of Guangxi Qinzhou Bonded Port Area.

Turning to the northeast, on the afternoon of October 7, the "Dongfang Sweden" vessel on the Ocean Alliance Europe route docked steadily at Dalian Container Terminal in Liaoning, with seven loading and unloading lines operating at the same time.

Dalian Container Terminal Co., Ltd. handles more than 98% of the foreign trade container volume in Northeast China and opened five new foreign trade routes this year.

"Within a berthing time of less than 20 hours, we need to complete the loading and unloading of nearly 4,900 TEUs," said Qiu Li, duty manager of the operations department at Dalian Container Terminal Co., Ltd. He noted that during the National Day holiday, container terminal operations remained at a high level, with total loading and unloading volume expected to rise about 20% year on year. "There is grain bound for southern provinces, as well as precision instruments, complete vehicles and equipment parts bound for Europe."

During the National Day holiday, port upgrades did not stop.

At Shanghai Port's third automated terminal, construction of the Xiaoyangshan North operation area proceeded at full speed, with all five automated quay cranes in place.

Qin Tao, deputy commander of the engineering command headquarters at Shanghai International Port Group, said this brand-new automated terminal will iteratively upgrade the new-generation smart operation and management system for automated terminals independently developed by Shanghai International Port Group.

At the automated container terminal at Qinzhou Port, five 5,000-tonne-class automated container berths for river-sea intermodal transport are under simultaneous construction, with large tunneling machinery roaring without pause.

Before long, river vessels from the Pinglu Canal will be able to berth alongside sea-going ships, and cargo will achieve "water-to-water transshipment and direct unloading and loading" through portal cranes, belt conveyors, floating cranes and other equipment, reducing the need for ground handling and warehousing and greatly increasing efficiency.

China has already built and put into operation 60 automated terminals, including 30 automated container terminals, accounting for 27% of the global total. The automated terminals at Shanghai Port and Shandong Qingdao Port have a maximum single-machine operating efficiency of more than 60 natural containers per hour, and the average time in port for international container ships at major coastal ports is 1.7 days.