Shanghai Opens New Sea Routes to Japan, U.S.

New sea transportation routes from Shanghai to Japan and the United States went into operation on Monday.

The route will be run every week, staring in Shanghai and stopping at Yantian in south China's Guangdong Province, Hong Kong, and New York, Norfolk, and Charleston in the U.S., and then Tokyo and Kobe. Nine ships with transportation capacity of 3,400 TEU each will be used on the route, officials said. Operated jointly by the China Ocean Shipping Corporation (COSCO) Container Lines, Japan's Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd., and the Yang Ming Lines of Taiwan, the route will shorten travel time between Hong Kong and New York from 33 days to 26 days.

The new channel will also enable Shanghai and south China to further expand their transportation services to Japan and the U.S. east coast.

Economists predict a substantial rise in transportation business between China and North America after China's access to the World Trade Organization, and they see the establishment of this new route as far-sighted.

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