110,000th China-Europe freight train exits China

HOHHOT, June 12 (Xinhua) -- The 110,000th China-Europe freight train exited China via northern Inner Mongolia's Erenhot Port, the largest land port on the China-Mongolia border, on Thursday.

The train, loaded with 55 containers of home appliances, worth nearly 20 million yuan (about 2.79 million U.S. dollars), departed Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province on Tuesday. The train's departure marks a major milestone in the high-quality development of the China-Europe freight train service.

The train is expected to reach its destination in Moscow, Russia, in about two weeks, according to the port.

As the only port of entry and exit on the middle corridor of the China-Europe freight train service, Erenhot Port now operates 73 China-Europe freight train routes. It connects China with over 70 hub stations in more than 10 countries and regions, including Germany, Poland and Russia.

The port has operated over 19,000 China-Europe freight trains since 2013. In the first five months of this year, the port handled 1,489 inbound and outbound China-Europe freight trains, transporting nearly 1.9 million tonnes, or 168,800 TEUs of goods, representing year-on-year growth of 5.3 percent, 8.2 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively.

"With the regular operation of the China-Europe freight train service, the transportation time for our products to reach Europe has been shortened from 45 days to 15 days, and the logistics cost per tonne has been cut by approximately 600 yuan, laying a solid foundation for the development of the local agricultural product industry," said Cui Xuesong, deputy manager of an international logistics park management committee located over 300 km from the port. ■