On October 8, reporters learned that between midnight on October 1 and midnight on October 7, a total of 71 vessels passed through the Wu Songkou port in Shanghai, bringing nearly 1,500 crew members through immigration inspections at the Wu Song Border Inspection Station. During this period, over 230 administrative permits were issued, and more than 30 crew member exchanges were processed.
Throughout the holiday, the station’s drone special task force ramped up aerial inspections of international vessels both docked at the port and at anchor. Their primary focus was to monitor the waters for any possible illegal activities involving ships and personnel. In total, 17 police drones were deployed, covering more than 100 kilometers while inspecting 71 vessels. These drones utilized their advanced technology to communicate with vessels impacted by Typhoon Shanshan, advising them to move to safer waters, which helped ensure the port’s security and stability during the holiday.
In an interview, officials from the Wu Song Border Inspection Station discussed their efforts to foster a more conducive business environment, significantly cutting down on time and operational costs for companies and shipping firms. They rolled out several user-friendly services like “fast track” and “green channel” initiatives designed to achieve “zero wait time” upon arrival and “zero delays” upon departure.
On October 3, a Panamanian vessel that was set to dock at Luojing Port had to change course and instead anchored at Baoshan due to obstructions in the Yangtze River. With only a few hours left before departure, handling crew immigration procedures at anchor would have required using a transport boat to ferry crew documents, risking missing the tide and incurring substantial costs. Understanding the urgency, the Wu Song Border Inspection Station acted under the principle of “special treatment for special cases,” allowing the vessel to complete its departure formalities at the nearest jurisdictional duty point.
Additionally, another Chinese vessel that was originally scheduled to enter via Jun Gong Lu Port also found itself anchored at Wu Song due to the typhoon. The inspection station quickly put measures in place to benefit businesses, ensuring that crew immigration procedures could be conducted as soon as the vessel reached the dock, thereby saving time that would have been spent transporting crew members to the anchorage.
