China-Europe freight train leaves Hebei port

A China-Europe freight train left Shijiazhuang, Hebei province on Tuesday and will arrive in Moscow in around 12 days, with a variety of commodities for customers.

The train is carrying 100 containers filled with mechanical devices, bags and artificial leather, valued at 20 million yuan ($3 million), according to the Shijiazhuang International Land Port.

It left the Shijiazhuang International Land Port in Gaoyi county and will leave the country via Ereenhot Port in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

"It's convenient and fast, which was the main reason I chose the China-Europe freight train to take my goods for export," said Wu Guoyu, one of the managers of Hebei Mutian Hoisting Equipment Manufacturing Co.

Logistically, the route is twice as fast as transport by sea, said Wu, whose company is based in Baoding city.

This is the first time that Baoding is sending exports on a China-Europe freight train through the Shijiazhuang International Land Port.

In addition to Baoding, freight has also been sent this way from Xingtai, Cangzhou, Hengshui and Beijing.

"It shows that more cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region are using us to send goods on China-Europe freight trains. We are the region's major land port," said Liu Jinpeng, general manager of Shijiazhuang port.

"We can help businesses in the region participate more conveniently in international production capacity cooperation."

The port started operations in 2018 and has become a major land port for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Since the beginning of this year, 351 China-Europe freight trains have left Shijiazhuang, an increase of 172 percent year-on-year, according to the port.

In all, 34,426 standard containers with more than 330,000 metric tons of goods worth over 7.5 billion yuan have transited through the port.

"Land ports like this can greatly help cities that are not located on the coast, on rivers or in border areas, providing a convenient option for them to participate in imports and exports," Liu said.