The first China-Europe freight train on the new Wu'an-Xi'an-Tashkent/Moscow route departed from the county-level city of Wu'an in North China's Hebei province on June 29 and subsequently arrived in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province.

The first China-Europe freight train on the new Wu'an-Xi'an-Tashkent/Moscow route departs from Hebei province on June 29. [Photo/Xi'an Daily]

The freight train will next leave the country via the Alataw Pass land port in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, bound for Tashkent in Uzbekistan and Moscow in Russia.

With a total journey of 8,044 kilometers, it is expected to reach its destination in 14 days.

The freight train carries 50 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers, holding goods such as machinery from Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, and Henan provinces, worth 6.71 million yuan ($1 million).

The opening of the freight train route marked a new overland supply service between Wu'an and Europe for commerce and trade, and the China-Europe Chang'an freight train service has added a new route connecting the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area.

It is regarded as being an important measure for Xi'an and Handan – the prefecture-level city which administers Wu'an – to deeply integrate into the Belt and Road, establish a major logistics channel, as well as to accelerate the formation of a new hub for inland opening-up.

Furthermore, it has provided a new bridge for more and more domestic cities to carry out international trade.