A container vessel carrying 8,500 tons of 610 standard containers departed from Qinzhou bonded port in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on April 20 for Kaohsiung port in Taiwan.

It arrived in Kaohsiung on Tuesday afternoon, marking the first successful direct sailing route between the two important port cities.

The weekly Qinzhou-Kaohsiung direct route is the first one of its kind connecting Guangxi and Taiwan with Hong Kong port. The sea transportation time between the two ports has been reduced from around a week to three days.

The Qinzhou-Kaohsiung direct route is of great importance to promoting commercial exchanges between Guangxi and Taiwan. Guangxi signed 57 commercial contracts valued at $1.12 billion with Taiwan enterprises in 2012, a year-on-year increase of 37.4 percent. The robust growth is expected to continue.

More mechanical, electrical and agricultural products made by Taiwan enterprises in Guangxi will be shipped out from Qinzhou port, which already has direct routes with Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore. Taiwan’s plastic, chemical and agricultural products will come to Guangxi through the route.