In a push to accelerate the building of a strong transportation nation and support the revitalization of the province's water transport and its comprehensive transportation system, the Heilongjiang Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission guided provincial state-owned enterprise Heilongjiang Shipping Group (hereafter referred to as the Shipping Group) to take on its mission as a state-owned company and tackle the longstanding challenge of reopening the Songhua River section between Jiamusi and Harbin, which had been closed to navigation for more than two decades.
In September 2026, a thousand-ton cargo vessel carrying a full load of float glass successfully arrived at Harbin Port for its maiden voyage, fully opening the complete 445-kilometer water transport corridor from Jiamusi to Harbin and marking a historic breakthrough in the restoration of inland river navigation in Heilongjiang.
Since the late 1990s, the Jiamusi-Harbin route on the Songhua River had been out of service for more than 20 years due to factors such as the development of land transportation, seasonal low water levels in the river channel, and insufficient waterway maintenance, creating a situation of "living beside a great river yet shipping by land" and becoming a prominent weak link in the comprehensive multimodal transportation network.
The Shipping Group focused on overcoming difficulties, adhering to systematic planning, full-chain efforts, and multi-party coordination, and rolled out a practical set of combined measures.
First, it precisely organized cargo sources. It formed a business task force to effectively solve the shortage of cargo in the early stage of reopening.
Second, it coordinated transport capacity. It allocated road short-haul trucks, thousand-ton specialized vessels, and other transport resources, built a closed-loop road-water intermodal chain of "road short-haul - port loading - inland river shipping - destination distribution," precisely matched waterway transport with road feeder capacity, and improved the efficiency of multimodal transport organization.
Third, it strictly controlled transport risks. In view of the characteristics of the cargo, it refined full-process management and control of loading, unloading, and transportation, implemented on-site duty arrangements, and prevented transport risks.
Fourth, it seized the navigation window. It scientifically assessed hydrological changes, seized the autumn navigation window to organize the maiden voyage, and ensured safe and stable navigation.
Fifth, it deepened government-enterprise coordination. It actively engaged local government departments such as transportation and maritime authorities as well as industry regulators, seeking business guidance and policy support throughout the entire process, including trial voyage preparations and route opening. It innovatively realized one-stop "door-to-door" service from cargo owner to consignee.
The route's reopening has yielded multiple comprehensive benefits.
In transportation development, it connects key ports along the river, opens up links between the province's hinterland and port hubs, promotes the Songhua River's transformation from a single ecological landscape belt into an industrial transportation economic belt, and effectively improves the province's comprehensive multimodal transportation layout.
In the real economy, it leverages the advantages of water transport, including large capacity, low cost, and low energy consumption, vigorously advances the shift of bulk cargo from road to water, effectively diverts pressure from land freight, lowers enterprises' overall logistics costs, drives linked industrial development in areas along the river, activates the momentum of port-adjacent industries along the river, and promotes the deep integration of ecological, transportation, and economic value in the Songhua River basin.
In opening-up, it builds a logistics corridor of "Harbin hinterland - main stream of the Songhua River - Jiamusi hub - Heilongjiang boundary river - out to the sea," links the border ports of Tongjiang and Fuyuan, connects the waterway trunk lines of Jilin and Heilongjiang and those leading to Russian ports, and expands new space for northward opening.
This reopening is not only a concrete practice in implementing the strategies of building a strong transportation nation and revitalizing Northeast China, but also provides reference experience for the recovery of inland waterways, and is of great significance.
Next, Heilongjiang Shipping Group will continue to anchor itself to the goal of water transport revitalization, continuously optimize full-chain logistics services, expand dedicated water transport routes for bulk materials such as grain and coal, improve the water transport system featuring "trunk-branch coordination and river-sea intermodal transport," strengthen inland river and cross-border water transport operations, fully unleash the efficiency of the "golden waterway," earnestly fulfill the political responsibility and mission of the times as a provincial state-owned enterprise, and demonstrate the responsibility of a state-owned enterprise and contribute the strength of a shipping enterprise in implementing major national and provincial strategies.