Photo shows the Ezhou Huahu International Airport in Ezhou city, central China's Hubei Province. (People's Daily Online/Zhou Tian)

The lights blazed bright at the Ezhou Huahu International Airport in Ezhou city, central China's Hubei Province at 2 a.m. 182 cases of live eels, stored in temperature-controlled containers, were ready for departure following a series of procedures including paperless customs clearance.

Within two hours, the eels would reach Incheon, South Korea—a journey that previously required a grueling 72-hour sea voyage via east China's Shandong Province.

How did this airport become Asia's first professional cargo hub airport?

"Ezhou city enjoys an exceptionally advantageous geographic position, sitting precisely at the junction of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Yangtze River Economic Belt," said a senior official in the city.

From this strategic location, aircraft can reach China's five national-level city clusters within a 1.5-hour flight. The city is also situated near the Yangtze River—the "golden waterway"—and is surrounded by seven major deep-water ports, four expressways, two highways, and six high-speed rail lines.

Photo shows a sand table of the cargo transfer center of the Ezhou Huahu International Airport in Ezhou city, central China's Hubei Province. (People's Daily Online/Zhou Tian)

Since beginning operations in July 2022, the Ezhou Huahu International Airport has established connections with 15 Asian countries, 10 European nations, four countries in the Americas, and one destination in Africa.

Last year, the airport handled over 30,000 cargo flights and processed around 1.03 million tonnes of cargo, recording the fastest growth rate in the country. It has since built a comprehensive international cargo route network.

Moreover, intelligent customs reforms are setting new benchmarks for China's smart port efficiency. The airport features a 750,000-square-meter cargo transfer center, with intelligent parcel sorting lines adding up to 52 kilometers.

A livestreamer promotes durians from Thailand at the cross-border e-commerce industrial park in Ezhou city, central China's Hubei Province. (People's Daily Online/Zhou Tian)

"The center is equipped with 14 intelligent inspection lines and a fully automated sorting system with classified management. The average processing time for international express parcels is just 4.9 minutes," said a Wuhan Customs official.

In the first five months of this year, the airport processed about 530,000 inbound and outbound express parcels, representing an 18.5-fold increase compared to the same period last year.

On April 30, the China (Ezhou) Comprehensive Pilot Zone for Cross-border E-commerce officially launched operations. Ezhou signed strategic cooperation agreements with 27 domestic and international enterprises, focusing on developing a comprehensive cross-border e-commerce industrial chain, including e-commerce bases, intelligent warehousing, and digital customs services.