The city of Xiamen – located in East China's Fujian province – is based on and prospers from its port and it has grand plans for its future.

Last year, Xiamen called for advancing the port's high-quality development backed by the city's efforts – in a bid to transform it into a world-class facility.

The Hairun terminal in the Haicang port area is the main location for berthing container ships in Xiamen Port. The country's first intelligent transformation project is being promoted there to transform the traditional container terminal.

The Hairun terminal in the Haicang port area. [Photo/WeChat account: gh_6233022b6145]

A fleet of 44 self-driving trucks arrived at the terminal recently. After being put into use, they will gradually replace manned container transportation equipment, according to officials.

From January to November last year, Xiamen Port handled 11.31 million TEUs – or standard twenty-foot equivalent units – of containers.

In November last year, the container throughput at Xiamen Port reached 1.13 million TEUs, the best performance in one month since its opening. As a result, it continued to be the 7th most active port in China and the 13th in the world.

Recently, Xiamen Port added a batch of foreign trade routes. That takes the number of foreign trade container routes it handles to 131, while the number of Silk Road Maritime routes has increased to 94 – reaching 102 ports in 31 countries and regions.