A China-Europe freight train bound for Moscow, Russia, departs from Puhe Railway Station in Shenyang, Liaoning province, on Thursday morning. (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)

A Moscow-bound freight train left Puhe station in Shenyang, Liaoning province, on Thursday morning as the China-Europe Railway Express passed 140,000 trips nationwide since its 2011 launch, with Liaoning emerging as a key hub in Northeast China.

China Railway Shenyang Group has run 7,357 China-Europe trains carrying 731,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) since beginning the service in 2014, according to the company. Annual dispatches rose from 351 trains in 2016 to 1,027 in 2025. The 874 trains dispatched from January to September this year were up 24.7 percent year-on-year, a record for the period.

Originally running only from Shenyang, the service now also departs from Dalian and Tieling in Liaoning, Changchun in Jilin province, and Chifeng and Tongliao in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Its trains leave China through six ports along three corridors: Manzhouli and Erenhot in Inner Mongolia; Suifenhe and Tongjiang North in Heilongjiang province; and Alashankou (Alataw Pass) and Khorgos in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Shenyang's China-Europe freight train assembly center opened in March 2023 and is the only national-level center in Northeast China. The 177,000-square-meter site handles assembly, dispatch, storage, bonded warehousing, and customs clearance. Since opening, it has dispatched more than 2,400 trains carrying over 250,000 TEUs for more than 2,000 companies.

The trains cut transit time to about one-third that of sea freight at roughly one-fifth the cost of air freight, according to Lu Yongliang, deputy general manager of the logistics division of China Railway Shenyang Group. The group has also set up 59 sea-rail intermodal train lines with Liaoning Port Group and Jinzhou Port, which Lu said significantly reduce logistics costs.

The trains cut transit time to about one-third that of sea freight at roughly one-fifth the cost of air freight, according to Lu Yongliang, deputy general manager of the logistics division of China Railway Shenyang Group. The group has also set up 59 sea-rail intermodal train lines with Liaoning Port Group and Jinzhou Port, which Lu said significantly reduce logistics costs.