On the afternoon of July 20, international cruise ship “Legend of the Seas” owned by USA Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., with more than 1,900 Chinese tourists onboard, set sail from Dalian port for Japan for a 5-day cruise. Dalian Customs carried out an integrated control model in the “three mutual” principle to help the tourists with clearance.

The “Legend of the Seas” was the first foreign-owned cruise ship setting out from Dalian port, marking the official opening of International Cruise Ship Center of Dalian.

This ship, with 263 meters long, 32 meters wide and 70,000 gross tonnage, can carry 2,074 passengers and is well equipped with catering, sightseeing, entertainment and shopping facilities.

With more than 1,900 passengers on the first sailing, the Customs and CIQ agencies braced for a big challenge of time-pressed clearance.

“We studied and exercised a new control model in advance, separating inward and outward passengers, having outward passengers consign luggage first and then go through clearance”. At the same time, we carried out integrated control by the Customs, CIQ and Security Check altogether, with luggage going through X-ray inspection once only, thus saving clearance time,” said Li Dahai, Deputy Director of Gangwan Customs House.

In future, this Customs will actively cooperate with related port administrations to foster the cruise liner industry in Dalian and make Dalian a cruise home port that covers northeast Asia with a global view.