A freight train loaded with 50 containers of machinery and equipment left Chongqing Municipality in southwestern China for the Ukrainian capital on Sunday, marking the launch of a new Chongqing freight train route.
The freight train is due to pass through the border port of Erenhot in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in northern China and arrive at its destination in mid-September.
Previously, exports from Chongqing to Ukraine had to go through Belarus or Poland, not directly to Ukraine. The new route is the first direct international freight train of the municipality to Kyiv. It is expected that this will further develop trade between Europe and the western regions of China.
Chongqing is the main transportation hub for China-Europe freight trains. The Yusinou Railway (Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe), which became the first China-Europe freight train route, made 1,359 flights in the first half of 2021, more than 50 percent year on year, according to the port and the municipality’s logistics department.
Since the launch of the railway in 2011, Yusinyou has launched more than 30 routes connecting more than 40 cities in 26 countries, and more than 8,000 freight trains have been registered along the routes.