A freight train departed from the city of Wanzhou in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Wednesday, marking that the land-sea freight route in western China has brought benefits to more places.
The land-sea freight route is part of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a trade and logistics passage jointly built by provincial regions in west China and Singapore under the framework of the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity.
The train starting from Wanzhou carried 30 containers of sodium carbonate and ammonium chloride weighing 660 tonnes.
The shipment of these goods is scheduled to arrive at the Beibu Gulf in Guangxi, where it will transfer by sea to some southeast Asian countries. The operation time will save 14 days compared with that of the traditional eastern river and sea route.
Wanzhou, located in the northeast part of Chongqing, is a logistics hub for northeastern Chongqing, eastern Sichuan, western Hubei, southern Shaanxi, western Hunan and eastern Guizhou Province.
The freight train from Wanzhou will bring the products from the above-mentioned places to markets in southern China and Southeast Asia, meanwhile, grains, fruits and seafood from Southeast Asia will also be transported to these places via the freight trains, said sources with a local logistics company.
By the end of March, the land-sea freight route had seen 901 trips, transporting 440 million U.S. dollars worth of auto parts, construction materials, porcelain, chemical products, grains and frozen goods. It links 166 ports in 71 countries and regions worldwide.