Freight train service connects Chinese port with Belgium

SHIJIAZHUANG - A freight train service has been launched from a port in North China's Hebei province to Belgium, a further line for freight between China and Europe.

A train carrying 41 containers of local products, such as kaoline and yeast, departed around noon Thursday from Jingtang Port District in the city of Tangshan, marking the inauguration of the service.

The train will travel 11,000 kilometers to the Belgian city of Antwerp, through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany, said Xu Fengyi, head of the Tangshan Customs.

The train service will cut transport time from the usual 45 days by sea, to just 16 days.

Tangshan, 150 km from Beijing and sitting on the north of the Bohai Sea, has just develop 32 km of its 230-km coastline for commercial use, where two port districts -- Jingtang and Caofeidian -- are located. It handled 573 million tonnes of freight last year, according to the city government.

The new freight service offers a new way not only for the freight of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei to Europe, but also for that of Japan and the Republic of Korea to Europe via China, according to Xu.