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In recent years, many regions including China have witnessed fast growth of dry ports. Unlike in the other regions of the world, the amount of cargos handled by most dry ports in China is not in compliance with the significant amount of resources invested, but the reasons behind have not been discussed before. After a brief review on the development pattern of Chinese dry ports, certain dry port functions like customs clearance and rail connection, dry port ownership structure, and inter-competition among dry ports are identified as the unique factors which distinguish Chinese dry ports from others and affect their performance. We investigate the relationship between these factors and the efficiency of Chinese dry ports with a two-stage approach based on a panel data collected from eight dry ports affiliated to the port of Ningbo, China, covering the 2011–2016 period. In the first stage, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used to measure these dry ports' technical efficiency. In the second stage, Tobit regression analysis is applied to explore the relationship between efficiency and the above mentioned factors. Several insightful findings are observed, further leading to useful managerial insights. • The unique features in development of Chinese dry ports are discussed. • Impacts of these features on dry ports' efficiency are empirically examined. • Provision of customs service implies low efficiency at dry ports. • Seaport's ownership may not be beneficial to dry ports and local economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]