Photo provided by the Media Convergence Center of Xiangxiang City.

Xiangxiang City launched its first China-Europe freight train on November 29, marking the opening of a new channel linking the city with international market. 

The train will pass through the Changsha North Station and leave China via Manzhouli, China's largest land port, in Inner Mongolia and is scheduled to arrive in Russia's Vorsino in 22 days. The train is loaded with 10 containers of goods including lamps, wooden hangers, and school supplies, worth 1.096 million USD. 

Xiangxiang City has more than 20 foreign trade enterprises, half of whom trade with European countries. Previously these enterprises mainly ship goods to Europe by sea and air. But these modes of transportation are easily affected by natural conditions such as climate. Now exporting goods via the freight train service is twice as fast as by sea. It improves delivery efficiency, accelerates turnover of business capital, and enhances these enterprises' competitiveness in international market. The city's various high-quality products can be exported to international market through the freight train service.

Zhao Xinwen, deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Xiangtan Municipal People's Congress and secretary of the CPC Xiangxiang City Committee, said that Xiangxiang will make all-out efforts to transform its "pass-by economy" into "passageway economy" and make the freight train a new channel for local enterprises to go global.

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn