Xixiang County in northwest China's Shaanxi Province saw the departure of its first China-Europe freight train, as the cargo train left for Uzbekistan loaded with some 130 tonnes of local tea.
The freight train left the county Monday morning and made a stop in the provincial capital Xi'an, from where it is scheduled to reach Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent after traveling a total of 5,087 kilometers.
As tea features strong water adsorbability, small mass and large volume, special freight cars are arranged to meet demands for cross-border transportation.
It is the first time for Xixiang's tea to be exported through the freight train service, said Ren Huajiang, executive president of a Shaanxi-based tea company, adding that the firm will further export 2 to 4 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of tea per month this year through the cargo route.
Xixiang has more than 2,000 years of tea cultivation history, and the local tea has been transported to Europe and other regions of the world since ancient times.
