A China-Europe freight train heading for Moscow leaves Quanzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Jan. 18, 2022. A new cargo train, loaded with 445 tonnes of goods, departed from Quanzhou and headed for Moscow Tuesday morning. This is the first China-Europe freight train route from Quanzhou, which is an important starting point on the Maritime Silk Road. Photo: Xinhua

The total number of China-Europe freight train trips has exceeded 50,000 as a cargo train left the southwestern city of Chengdu on Saturday, official data showed, a stable contribution to the global supply chain.

The value of goods transported by the cargo service skyrocketed to $74.9 billion in 2021, up from $8 billion dollars in 2016, and its share in total trade between China and Europe has increased from 1.5 to 8 percent, according to the release China State Railway Group sent to the Global Times.

From 2016 to 2021, the China-Europe Railway Express had a yearly increase of 55 percent on average per year, extending to 180 cities in 23 countries in the Europe, and the transported items have expanded from IT products such as mobile phones and notebook computers at the beginning, to more than 50,000 items, including auto parts, vehicles, chemicals, electro-mechanicals, food, alcohol, and wood, the company said. 

The company said the China-Europe freight train, which serves as a crucial link for trade and economic cooperation across the Eurasian region, has been running smoothly since 2020, as the world is facing the impact of the epidemic, and the trains also play an important role in fighting the epidemic with the transport of epidemic prevention materials.

A total of 13.62 million pieces of anti-epidemic materials, weighing more than 100,000 tons, have been delivered to Germany, Poland, Belgium and other European countries, which has become a "bond of destiny" for countries to join hands in fighting the epidemic.

Observers said the rapid development of the China-Europe freight train has effectively driven the opening-up of inland cities in China, such as Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, which has promoted its economy in term of IT, auto and the e-commerce business. 

East China's Jiangsu Province handled 1,800 China-Europe freight train trips in 2021, a record, up 29 percent year-on-year, according to the provincial department of transportation. The import and export value of goods transported by the freight trains reached nearly 25.6 billion yuan ($4 billion), up 67.7 percent from 2020.