Published : 2024-07-21

On July 21, 1995, the newly constructed "Jinyao Railway" (金窯鐵路) in Dalian of Liaoning Province, officially opened, marking the first cross-sea railway in northern China.

Dayaowan Port (大窯灣港), where the railway is located, back then was a newly built seaport on the east side of Dalian Economic and Technological Development Zone. Due to its deep waters and ice-free status, it was planned to be a world-class large port.

Before the opening of the Jinyao Railway, Dayaowan Port had no railway transportation. Import and export goods could only rely on road transportation, which cost over 200 million CNY more annually compared to railway transportation.

To address this problem, the Ministry of Railways invested over 300 million CNY to construct the Jinyao freight railway from Jinzhou (金州) to Dayaowan Port, with a total length of 17.76 kilometres, which connects to the Harbin-Dalian Railway (哈大鐵路).

The Jinyao Railway mainly carries the railway freight of the Dayaowan Port Area and the Dalian Bay Port Area, as well as parts of the freight transportation for the Dalian Economic and Technological Development Zone.

The expansion and upgrade work for the Jinyao Railway was completed at the end of 2006, lengthening it to 22.5 kilometres, which allowed its capacity to increase from 21 million tonnes per year to 100 million tonnes.