by Xinhua writers Zhao Jiale, Li Xiaoting

CHONGQING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The inland municipality of Chongqing, where mountains and hills account for 90 percent of its terrain, has been transforming into a pivotal logistics nexus, linking the world via multiple trade arteries.

In April, a freight train loaded with polyester chips departed from Chongqing to Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent, launching the first regular freight train route, which operates twice monthly, from the municipality to Central Asia.

"The 12-day route spanning 4,700 km slashes the transportation time by 30 percent, empowering Chinese enterprises to better serve Central Asian markets," said Xu Meiqiong, an engineer with China Railway Chengdu Group Co., Ltd.

This freight train route exemplifies how China's western landlocked regions are seamlessly integrating into global commerce through the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC) -- a multimodal transportation network integrating rail, road, and sea systems. Established in 2017 through cross-regional collaboration between provincial-level regions in western China and Southeast Asian countries, the corridor now pulses with commercial vitality.

In March, 200 vehicles of Changan Automobile, a leading auto brand in China, boarded a specialized JSQ freight train for export. Unlike traditional cargo trains featuring containers, it has 29 special carriages, each able to accommodate nine to 10 vehicles, which can be driven on and off the carriages. Cars were transferred directly onto roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) vessels to Qinzhou Port in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, bound for Dubai.

"This integrated logistics solution reduces transport time by over 10 percent, cuts costs by more than 8 percent compared to traditional methods, and minimizes potential vehicle damage," said Li Yan, deputy director of Chongqing port and logistics office, adding that the debut of the multimodal logistics route provides a more competitive solution for Chinese automobile exports.

The ILSTC's network, extending to Europe and Southeast Asia, now connects 563 ports across 127 countries and regions. As of mid-May this year, the cargo throughput transported via the ILSTC had surged 72.3 percent year on year to 549,600 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

Apart from the capacity to deliver bulky items, the efficient international corridor also tackles perishable logistics puzzles. In recent years, fresh durians, mangoes, and other tropical fruits from Thailand and Vietnam have reached the Chinese market at competitive prices, while Guangxi citrus has found swift global distribution.

Yang Ming, general manager of Zuncheng (Chongqing) Logistics Chain Management Co., Ltd., said imported fruit previously entered from China's coastal metropolis of Shanghai and then sailed more than 1,600 km westward along the Yangtze River before being transported to his firm. "In recent years, our customers no longer worry about fruit getting moldy due to long transit times," he added.

Dutch company New Silk Way Logistics has used the China-Europe rail services for nine years. The company introduced temperature-controlled containers to help European pharmaceutical enterprises access the Chinese market.

Hanno Reeser, a strategic expert from the company, said that medical products are highly sensitive to temperature and transit time, while the freight train has reduced the journey from Europe to China to less than 20 days, which is far quicker than by sea.

For ASEAN-bound shipments from Chongqing, the ILSTC cuts the transit time by approximately 25 days via smooth intermodal coordination, which outperforms the traditional routes along the Yangtze River waterway to coastal ports in east China.

The ILSTC also creates greater value in the development of remote areas. After a 43-day journey, Arctic sweet shrimp were shipped from Canada, via Qinzhou Port, to a factory of Jiajiarong food company in the mountainous area of Chongqing.

Following streamlined manufacturing processes including cleaning, shelling, and flash-freezing, shrimp products are packed and transported via refrigerated trucks to east China's Shandong Province, and then shipped to their final destination -- counters of sushi shops and supermarkets in Japan, with a total transportation time of only one week.

"The ILSTC brings us the business of processing and re-exporting supplied materials. Our workers in mountainous areas are engaged in international business," said Wang Lezhi, general manager of Jiajiarong, adding that the company has exported over 80 tonnes of aquatic products as of April this year.

In the first quarter, the import and export volume via the ILSTC exceeded 200 billion yuan (about 27.84 billion U.S. dollars), marking a year-on-year growth of over 10 percent and setting a historic high, according to Chongqing Customs. Enditem

(Intern Zhang Jiaxuan contributed to the story.)