A large container ship departs Yangpu Port in Hainan Province (DENG XIAOLONG)

Located on the northwest tip of Hainan Island, Yangpu Port is bustling with activity, with towering gantry cranes frantically loading containers on and off large cargo vessels. Cargo volumes here have surged as a result of a slew of special customs policies that went into force in December 2025. 

According to Lin Hongpin, head of the Yangpu Branch of the Hainan Pilot Station, “Now, one out of every two international vessels we pilot is a megaship over 200 metres long.” Since the initiation of new policies for the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP), the demand for pilotage services for such large vessels has risen by nearly 20 percent year on year.  

Behind this shift lies Yangpu’s strategic positioning among FTPs as a “pioneer zone” and a “model area.” Amid China’s new round of high-standard opening up, Yangpu Port is charting a path towards becoming an international hub. To that end, a number of transformative measures, especially the establishment of the Yangpu China Ship Registry Port, have been implemented to accelerate the expansion of global routes and deepen international cooperation. 

A century-old aspiration 

Because of its important geographic location, Yangpu Port has long played a significant role in the country’s strategic plans. 

The area has long been regarded as having great potential. During the late Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), the prominent official Zhang Zhidong proposed the idea of building a port here; during the Republic of China (1912–1949), Sun Yat-sen envisioned the area as “China’s future major port” in his Plans for National Reconstruction; and in the 1970s, Premier Zhou Enlai also listed it in a national plan for key ports. 

Yangpu is endowed with many natural advantages. For example, it has Hainan’s finest deep-water shoreline resources and lies just over 20 nautical miles from major international shipping lanes, making it an important node linking shipping routes in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. However, despite these advantages, its development was once limited by transport and industrial conditions. When the Yangpu Economic Development Zone was established in 1992, the port had only two 10,000-tonne berths and could handle less than one million tonnes of cargo annually. 

The turning point came with the launch of the Hainan FTP in 2018, which significantly raised Yangpu’s status. “Yangpu” was referred to seven times in the Master Plan for the Construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port, released in 2020, and defined as a “pioneer zone” and a “demonstration zone,” placing it on a fast track for development. 

“Today, if you want to shoot aerial footage of the whole port with a drone, it has to fly for nearly three km,” said Deng Xiaolong, a Yangpu TV reporter who has documented the port’s changes since 2016. “In the past, due to the limited number of berths, it could only handle container ships of 40,000-50,000 tonnes. Today, the shoreline extends over a distance of nearly two km, and 150,000- and 200,000-tonne container vessels are regular visitors here,” he added. 

The scale of this transformation is evident in the statistics. When Su Zhuoyi, director of remote operations at Hainan Harbour & Shipping International Port Co., Ltd., first joined the company in 2018, the terminal had only four gantry cranes and an annual capacity of just 200,000 TEUs. Since then, the number of cranes has risen sharply. “In 2025, more than 3 million TEUs passed through the port’s docks, and the port has set even higher targets,” he said. 

Official statistics show that Yangpu Port handled 85.95 million tonnes of cargo in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 29.64 percent, while foreign trade cargo topped 42.48 million tonnes, up 12.82 percent. These rising numbers reflect growing policy dividends. 

A view of Yangpu International Container Terminal in Hainan Province on 16 January (DUAN WEI) 

Institutional innovation 

The driver of Yangpu’s strong growth is institutional innovation. The most noteworthy policies China has put in place are those concerning the Yangpu China Ship Registry Port. 

In June 2020, the Master Plan for the Construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port formally established Yangpu as a new ship registry port. Aligned with international standards, China introduced a series of highly attractive incentives: imported vessels for transportation by enterprises registered in the Hainan FTP can enjoy zero tariffs; domestically built vessels registered at Yangpu Port and engaged in international shipping qualify for export tax rebates; and eligible enterprises and individuals can benefit from preferential corporate income tax and personal income tax rates. 

In response to these policies, many shipping companies have been attracted to Hainan. Ge Liqiao, head of the Shipping Development Promotion Division of the Hainan International Shipping Registry, told reporters that her agency launched services such as “one-stop service” and “dedicated officer service,” cutting the amount of required application materials by 60 percent. Its review and approval efficiency is comparable to that of Singapore and Hong Kong. By the end of 2025, 82 international vessels had been registered under Yangpu Port, with a carrying capacity totalling 7.6 million deadweight tonnes, ranking it top among China’s free trade zones (ports). 

Institutional innovation also extends to other port operations. Sinopec Hainan Refining & Chemical Co., Ltd., for instance, has seen clearance efficiency and capital turnover improve significantly under the region’s newly initiated delivery and declaration model. “Goods can be shipped out in batches first, and their declaration can then be made within a month. This one-month extension helps us a lot,” said Song Pengjun, deputy manager of the company’s planning and operations department. 

A global shipping network 

With advanced infrastructure and supportive policies, Yangpu Port is making great strides in constructing a global shipping network and building a regional international shipping hub. 

So far, the port has opened 65 domestic and international routes. Domestic routes cover major coastal ports and connect with the Beibu Gulf and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Internationally, new direct ocean routes to the west and east coasts of the US and the west coast of South America have filled the gap in Hainan’s intercontinental services. Yangpu has also formed a sister-port relationship with Abu Dhabi Port, strengthening trade ties with the Middle East. Within Asia, a shipping network covering the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership area has taken shape. 

Yangpu’s rapid development is often compared with the Port of Singapore, but Chen Qi, deputy director of the Yangpu Investment Promotion Bureau, said this comparison is misplaced, as the two pursue different development paths and their complementarity outweighs competition. In fact, cooperation between the two ports is deepening. Hainan Harbour & Shipping International Port Co., Ltd. has signed a memorandum of understanding with PSA Corporation Ltd. to enhance cooperation in route expansion and improve operational efficiency, enabling smoother China-ASEAN trade. 

Yangpu Port’s remarkable transformation reflects China’s expanding openness in the new era and showcases the fruitful achievements of the Hainan FTP. As the island-wide special customs operation gains momentum, the deep-water harbour is now brimming with vitality, speeding towards the goal of becoming a world-class shipping hub.