The MS Westerdam, a cruise ship owned by Holland America, is docked for the first time at the Xiamen International Cruise Home Port in Xiamen, East China's Fujian province, on Dec 9. [Photo/WeChat account of xmhomeport]

An 82,500-ton luxury cruise ship capable of carrying 1,916 passengers headed for Shanghai was docked at the Xiamen International Cruise Home Port for the first time on Dec 9.

As of November, the International Cruise Home Port of Xiamen had received a total of 126 cruise ships carrying a total of 387,000 passengers this year, the most in its history, and its container throughput is projected to surpass 11.1 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) this year, according to the port operator.

In recent years, Xiamen has been attaching great importance to improving the port's business environment and services in order to propel the development of the city's tourism industry, according to Huang Yubin, vice-president of the Xiamen International Cruise Home Port. 

Xiamen Port has also launched the "Silk Road Maritime" project, and had opened 50 routes providing nearly 1,625 shipping services by Nov 30. The container throughput of the Silk Road Maritime project has totaled 1.41 million TEUs this year, up 10.42 percent year-on-year, and the number of international transit containers has exceeded 800,000 TEUs, growing by 50 percent year-on-year.

The port's dense shipping network, world-class efficiency, and high-quality customs clearance services are expected to greatly accelerate the development of Xiamen's port industry and help build the city into an important international logistics and transit hub.