Yichang opens direct route to southeast Asia
2023-04-15 20:04:41
By Tan Maolin, Yichang International Communication Studio
The first train on Yichang’s new southbound rail-sea link to southeast Asia nosed out of Yichang station on April 13.
The new route heads south from Yichang across the Jianghan Plain to Liuzhou and on to Qinzhou Port in Guangxi, where the goods are loaded onto ships and sail on to their country of destination.
It used to take 30 days to transport locally produced yeast, canned food, chemical products and spinning equipment from Yichang to countries like Vietnam, because they first headed down the Yangtze River to an eastern seaport and then went on by sea. That route – slow by today’s standards – is also affected by seasonal conditions on the Yangtze River.
The new southbound rail-sea train link from Yichang to Vietnam will cut 15 days off the time for products to reach Vietnam.
“This year, we expect to send more than 35,000 tons of goods down the rail-sea line from Yichang to Qinzhou Port, and on to Vietnam. At the moment, clients need to book the trains. In the future, as demand picks up, the trains will become more regular,” said Chen Xiaoyan, deputy section chief of the Yichang Deport Freight Section of China Railway Wuhan Group.
According to Yichang customs, in the first two months of this year, the total value of Yichang’s foreign trade reached 5.95 billion yuan (US$868 million), up 16.5 percent year-on-year. Exports made up 5.39 billion yuan of the total.
The first train on Yichang’s new southbound rail-sea link to southeast Asia nosed out of Yichang station on April 13.
The new route heads south from Yichang across the Jianghan Plain to Liuzhou and on to Qinzhou Port in Guangxi, where the goods are loaded onto ships and sail on to their country of destination.
It used to take 30 days to transport locally produced yeast, canned food, chemical products and spinning equipment from Yichang to countries like Vietnam, because they first headed down the Yangtze River to an eastern seaport and then went on by sea. That route – slow by today’s standards – is also affected by seasonal conditions on the Yangtze River.
The new southbound rail-sea train link from Yichang to Vietnam will cut 15 days off the time for products to reach Vietnam.
“This year, we expect to send more than 35,000 tons of goods down the rail-sea line from Yichang to Qinzhou Port, and on to Vietnam. At the moment, clients need to book the trains. In the future, as demand picks up, the trains will become more regular,” said Chen Xiaoyan, deputy section chief of the Yichang Deport Freight Section of China Railway Wuhan Group.
According to Yichang customs, in the first two months of this year, the total value of Yichang’s foreign trade reached 5.95 billion yuan (US$868 million), up 16.5 percent year-on-year. Exports made up 5.39 billion yuan of the total.
