New tech and transportation improve efficiency

No matter how many new technologies are used for border inspections, the experience of immigration officers is still key to spotting suspicious activities, said Xu Chengzhi, an immigration inspection officer at Heihe port, Heilongjiang province.

Xu has been an officer with the China Immigration Inspection office at the port－which links Heihe and Blagoveshchensk in Russia－since 2003, and he's seen how technology has been updated to make border inspections more efficient.

"But it's still down to the officers to ensure that no one can, or dares, exit or enter China illegally," the 36-year-old said.

The distance between the passenger ferry ports of Heihe and Blagoveshchensk is only about 650 meters, making Heihe the closest Chinese port to Russia.

As head of a passenger inspection team, Xu walks back and forth all day along the yellow line behind the inspection desks in the ferry port's departure hall, dealing with irregularities reported by officers.

"There is no room for error, because the consequences could be severe, so we have to be on high alert all the time," he said.

He has memorized anti-counterfeiting details of more than 20 kinds of passports and 30 visas commonly seen at Heihe, as well as basic information about the countries from which most passengers originate. Armed with that knowledge, he has spotted more than 30 people trying to cross the border illegally, and prevented 16 foreign criminal suspects from entering China.

In May last year, he spotted a Russian woman, who had previously been refused entry to China after overstaying her visa, trying to use a different passport to cross the border.

She claimed it was the first time she had visited China, but the record on her new passport showed otherwise.

Moreover, the name on her passport was different to the one on her Russian ID card, Xu said, explaining why the woman had seemed suspicious. In fact, she had remarried and changed her surname, then applied for a new passport in the belief it wouldn't show details of her previous trips overseas.

"Although the number of people passing through Heihe has risen in recent years, people should not think we will slack off during inspections just because our workload has increased," Xu added.