A China-Europe freight train unloads cargoes at the Chengdu International Railway Port in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, on Feb. 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Jiang Hongjing)
BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- The China-Europe freight trains have witnessed the remarkable progress made by Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, in its opening-up over the past eight years, according to the local provincial government on Monday.
On April 26, 2013, Chengdu saw the first trip made by the China-Europe freight train, heading for Lodz, Poland.
Over the years, with the help of the China-Europe freight train service, Chengdu has set up an improved network of international trains with the outstanding land-sea freight distribution system.
As an important entity running the China-Europe freight trains, Chengdu International Railway Port has seen rising imports and exports of the goods over the past eight years.
Value of the goods via the port had jumped to 150.7 billion yuan in 2020 from less than 10 billion yuan in 2013, and the port has become a distribution center for goods such as vehicles, meat, wine, wood, and grain, boosting the development of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Due to the reduction in time and transportation cost, the China-Europe freight trains (Chengdu) have been increasingly favored by customers.
On the morning of April 9, a train loaded with tea produced in Jiajiang County in Sichuan Province departed from Chengdu International Railway Port to Uzbekistan, marking the first agricultural product train from Sichuan to Central Asia and also the first train in Sichuan's history to deliver tea for exports.
"Thanks to the trains for Central Asia at the Chengdu International Railway Port, there is no need for us to transport tea to Xi'an for exports. One carriage can reduce transportation costs by 7,000 yuan and the time will be shortened by nearly one week," said Fang Yikai, chairman of a tea company.
It is learned that the China-Europe freight trains (Chengdu) have three permanent stations in Europe, namely Lodz in Poland, Nuremberg in Germany, and Tilburg in the Netherlands. After the train arrives at the permanent station, the goods can be distributed throughout Europe within one to three days.
At present, Chengdu International Railway Port has built seven international railway passages and five sea-rail combined transportation routes, connecting 59 overseas cities and 20 domestic cities.
In 2020, in the face of the global epidemic, the China-Europe freight trains (Chengdu) made about 5,000 trips, accounting for 40 percent of the country's total. (Edited by Hu Pingchao with Xinhua Silk Road, hupingchao@xinhua.org)
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