Manzhouli land port leads China-Europe railway lines in freight volume

Containers are stored at a railway container freight center in Manzhouli, Inner Mongolia autonomous region. (Photo by Fu Guoliangi/For chinadaily.com.cn)

The largest land port on the China-Russia border — Manzhouli in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region — recorded 678 returned China-Europe freight trains in the first quarter of this year, a year-on-year increase of 7.1 percent, according to China Railway Harbin Group recently.

The trains handled a total of 70,750 standard shipping containers, a year-on-year increase of 5.3 percent, marked a record high for the same period and ranked first in terms of freight volume among China-Europe railway lines across the country, it said.

The trains transport daily necessities, general merchandise, mechanical equipment, metals, agricultural products and timber between more than 60 domestic and European cities.

"To address the large volume of freight trains, we have actively taken measures, such as fully utilizing the intelligent container management system," said Yang Liang, a crane operator at the port. "Via computer screens in the crane operator's cab, we can see the information and location of the containers, saving more than 10 minutes compared to manual searching."

The Manzhouli Port has optimized its transportation and customs clearance processes in cooperation with customs and other local departments to ensure the smooth delivery of goods.

The group has also promoted proactive measures, such as online services offered by the e-commerce website 95306.cn and special transportation plans for different enterprises.