The Ministry of Transport, the National Railway Administration, and China Railway recently released the 2025 Exemplary Cases of Developing Container Rail-Sea Intermodal Brand Services. Among them, YANTIAN's "Liling–YANTIAN" rail–sea service was recognised as one of ten national exemplary cases—and notably, the only service from Guangdong Province to make the list. This marks another milestone of national recognition for YANTIAN's rail–sea service, following the inclusion of the Chongqing-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Scheduled Rail-Sea Service in November last year.

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👉Overview
🚇The 16-hour direct service from Liling to YANTIAN boosts efficiency by 77% and achieved a 57% year-on-year growth in cargo volume in 2024. The service has become a vital hub linking Hunan Province with the Greater Bay Area.
🖥By integrating innovative logistics solutions—including the single-container model, single-bill service, and an integrated inland port–railway–seaport operation system—export efficiency and the logistics experience for inland enterprises are significantly optimised.
🔗Seamless connectivity across domestic and international markets is further ensured through the combination of domestic rail arteries and feeder services with extensive international shipping networks. Through the Shenzhen–Hong Kong Connect, the two ports together provide around 240 weekly sailings, linking to over 400 global cargo sources.

The three departments jointly released the Exemplary Cases, offering replicable models to promote high-quality development across the industry. A total of ten container rail-sea services were featured, each exploring improvements in infrastructure, organisational models, service coordination, technological upgrades, information connectivity, and operational management. These initiatives have effectively reduced costs, enhanced efficiency, lowered energy consumption and emissions, and driven regional industrial transformation and high-quality economic growth, setting an exemplary standard.

16-Hour Express: Same-Day Station Delivery, Next-Day Door-to-Door

As one of YANTIAN's earliest rail-sea services, the Liling–YANTIAN service has undergone multiple upgrades since its inaugural service in 2005. The official launch of the Liling Inland Port in 2018 brought YANTIAN's terminal services directly to the inland hub. This enables cargoes destined for global export to be loaded into original ocean containers locally in Liling, significantly reducing cargo damage, shortening transit times, and lowering factory costs, while allowing customers to access port services conveniently at their doorstep.

In September 2024, the Liling–YANTIAN service was upgraded to a scheduled rail-sea service (X806), operating with dedicated railcars in a bi-directional loop and a non-stop, mid-route direct model. This scheduled daily operation, featuring fixed times, stops, routes, pricing, and train numbers, has dramatically improved performance.

Transit times have been shortened from 4–5 days at launch to just 16 hours, achieving same-day station-to-station delivery and next-day door-to-door service, providing international trade enterprises in eastern Hunan with a stable, efficient, and green low-carbon export channel.

Focused on Liling's specialty industries, the service strongly supports the export of Hunan porcelain, maintaining double-digit cargo growth for five consecutive years. In 2024, cargo volume rose 57% year-on-year, with a 13% increase in the first half of 2025.

One-Container Through + Smart Coordination: Solving Customer Pain Points

Leveraging the advantage of Shenzhen's only railway with direct access to the port area, YANTIAN has launched a series of innovative services to optimise export channels for inland enterprises.

The single-container model establishes a seamless service chain: empty container rail transport to the port, loading at the inland port, full-train return, and direct loading at YANTIAN. Containers can be returned directly at overseas destination ports, achieving "original-container export, one container to the end, overseas return," effectively alleviating the container shortage of in inland regions.

The single-bill waybill service offers a one-stop intelligent digital solution that extends the shipping bill of lading to the rail segment. Shipping companies issue full-route transport bills, enabling customers to complete booking, container pickup, customs declaration, and bill issuance locally. The system also provides 24/7 real-time tracking of containers and cargo.

The integrated inland port–railway–seaport operation system consolidates scattered cargo at inland ports via road transport and delivers full trains directly to the seaport. The "direct pickup at quay, direct loading at port" model ensures seamless coordination between rail and water networks, achieving three key benefits: (1) more effective port collection efficiency; (2) faster cargo turnover; (3) significant reduction in overall logistics costs.

Network Edge: Seamless Domestic-to-Global Hub

YANTIAN continues to expand its multimodal network, building a three-dimensional logistics system that integrates international shipping services, rail arteries, and feeder services. This extends port services deep into inland regions, offering inland international trade enterprises a one-stop, reliable, and fast full-chain logistics solution, helping them navigate complex global trade conditions.

As of October 2025, YANTIAN has launched 25 inland ports with 34 rail–sea services, along with 15 port alliances in the Greater Bay Area and 17 feeder services.

As one of the world's largest single container terminals, YANTIAN handles over one-third of Guangdong Province's international trade volume and more than a quarter of China's exports to the US. Leveraging hundreds of international shipping services, YANTIAN partners with government authorities, port supervisory authorities, and shipping companies to provide high-frequency, extensive, faster, high-efficiency maritime services. Domestically, it seamlessly connects to the national railway network and other ports, covering the Greater Bay Area, Southwest, and Central China. Internationally, it offers hundreds of weekly sailings linking to destinations worldwide.

The Shenzhen–Hong Kong Connect greatly enhances transshipment efficiency between the Greater Bay Area's two major ports—Shenzhen YANTIAN and Hong Kong Kwai Tsing—operating around 240 weekly services that connect more than 400 global cargo origins. Last year, laden container volumes transported via feeder services between the two ports grew nearly 30% year-on-year, setting new annual records. Cargo from YANTIAN can reach Kwai Tsing Port within 6–8 hours via feeder services, providing seamless access to additional international shipping routes.

Green Value: Driving China's Dual Carbon Goals

Compared with all-road transport, rail offers a greener, more sustainable alternative. It effectively avoids hidden costs caused by fuel price fluctuations and road congestion, helping enterprises advance their low-carbon transformation.

Studies show that rail transport reduces carbon emissions per unit of freight turnover by up to 90% compared to road. A fully loaded sea-rail intermodal train to YANTIAN can replace around 100 container trucks, making a significant impact in reducing environmental pollution and safety risks, lowering energy consumption, easing road congestion, optimising the transport structure, and supporting China's dual carbon goals.

Looking ahead, YANTIAN will continue to develop more innovative multi-location "hard-and-soft connectivity" models like the Liling–YANTIAN Scheduled Rail-Sea Service, Chongqing–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Scheduled Rail-Sea Service, and Chengdu–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Scheduled Rail-Sea Service.

These efforts aim to ensure the efficient outbound flow of international trade cargo, support Shenzhen’' development as a logistics hub with global influence, enhance the international competitiveness of the Greater Bay Area, and contribute to the national dual carbon goals and the high-quality growth of international trade.

Contact information for YANTIAN rail-sea service

Central China Region – Mr. Yang
📱Phone: +86 137 5119 0794
Tel: +86 755 2529 6215
📮Email: bob.yang@pingyan.com.cn