As the only ASEAN-oriented freight hub in Hunan Province, Huaihua has started from scratch to build an international land port during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025). So far, it has accumulatively handled over 2,800 freight trains, among which the China-Laos freight train service ranks first in the central regions of China, while the scale of cold-chain freight train service has maintained its top position among the inland ports nationwide. An international logistics system featuring "reaching the ports for sea transport within 30 days, and reaching ASEAN within three days" has preliminarily taken shape.
Huaihua government held a press conference recently, announcing that the Huaihua International Land Port has achieved its 2025 goals—operating over 1,000 freight train trips, handling over 10 million tonnes of cargo, and generating a total revenue of over 100 billion CNY in technology, industrial production, and trade. The port has successfully completed its startup phase and is entering a new phase of rapid expansion. Additionally, "accelerating the development of the Huaihua International Land Port" has been incorporated into national policies aimed at accelerating the rise of central China.
The Huaihua International Land Port has launched 200 international and domestic freight routes, with seven international logistics channels connecting to 216 ports and stations in 69 countries and regions around the world. The number of freight train trips has surged from 17 in 2021 to 1,200 in 2025, marking an average annual growth of 190%. About 70% of the cargos from the new western land-sea corridor are transported southward through Huaihua to ASEAN.
Leveraging the land port, Huaihua has achieved a leapfrog development in foreign trade, with its total import and export value skyrocketing from 1.45 billion CNY in 2020 to 13.76 billion CNY in 2024. Trade with ASEAN has grown more than 800%. Huaihua is making active efforts to build an "ASEAN resources—Huaihua manufacturing—Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) markets" cross-border industrial chain.
Benefiting from a cross-province customs cooperation mechanism encompassing Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi, the Huaihua International Land Port is striving to facilitate export of 441 types of goods across 17 categories to ASEAN, including new energy vehicles from Jiangxi and chemical products from Hubei. Meanwhile, it enables tropical fruits from ASEAN, such as durians, mangosteens, and longans, to be directly accessible to the Chinese market within 48 hours. In the first 11 months of 2025, Huaihua's fruit import trade exceeded 120 million CNY, marking a 4.2-fold increase.
This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.
Translator: Pang Yuehui
Chinese source: Chinanews
