Xi'an-Almaty cargo train begins operation

XI'AN - A cargo train linking Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, and the city of Almaty, Kazakhstan, started operation on Thursday.

The Chang'an Train will pass through Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in far west China and take six days to travel the 3,866 km route, cutting the journey time between the two cities by over 20 days, according to Qiang Xiao'an, director of Xi'an International Trade and Logistics Park.

The train will run twice a month between November 2013 to June 2014 and will run three times a month starting July 2014, said Qiang.

The train, which departed the logistics park on Thursday, was hauling 90 cars of goods, including mechanical components, barite powder, industrial salt and glass tubes, he said.

Another train carrying 49 cars of drilling rigs will leave on Friday and is expected to arrive at its destination in Zhem, Kazakhstan 10 days later, following a 5,027-km-long route, he said.

Authorities have also planned to open a 9,850-km-long Xi'an-Rotterdam route and a 7,251-km-long Xi'an-Moscow route in the future after gaining experience from the operation of the Xi'an-Almaty route, said Qiang.

The cargo service is expected to further boost bilateral trade between China's western regions along the Silk Road economic belt and central Asian countries, and goods from China's other regions can also be exported to central Asia via the route.

Xi'an, known in ancient times as Chang'an, is the starting point of the Silk Road - an ancient land trade route that ran through northwest China's Shaanxi, Gansu and Xinjiang, and central and western Asia, before reaching the Mediterranean.