Three freight trains with a speed of 120 kilometers per hour respectively departed from three Chinese cities on Monday, marking the country's official launch of cargo express trains.
One of the expresses departed from Langfang City in north China's Hebei Province with 43 containers, and is going to arrive in Changping Station in south China's Guangdong Province in over 30 hours.
"The route between (Hebei Province's) Guangyang District to (Guangdong Province's) Changping Town stretches 1,750 kilometers. The maximum speed of the train can reach 120 kilometers per hour. We set the price close to that of the road transportation, which is roughly the same," said Zhang Wansheng, deputy director of China Railway Beijing Group's freight transport department.
The cargo express trains mainly travel between economically developed areas, such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, the Yangtze River Delta and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
There will be six lines, with all of them using container marshaling.
Clients are able to check the price and available spots of the containers online, and make bookings based on their needs.
"After we book the spot for containers, a fleet of trucks is dispatched to load goods directly at our location. Let's calculate the costs, it saves us about 15 percent in transportation cost," said Hou Bin, a person in charge of a logistics enterprise in Shanghai.
China launches cost-effective cargo express trains
People in the Republic of the Congo say they are looking forward to expanding cooperation with China to more fields including medicine.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is going to visit the central African country on Tuesday, as part of his four-nation tour of Africa.
Officials said that the two sides will implement some of the programs that were agreed upon at last year's Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing.
Economic relations between China and the Republic of the Congo date back to the 1960s.
Over the years, China has built factories, roads and bridges that have helped transform the country's agriculture-based economy into a semi-industrialized one.
Crude oil, copper and wood have been the Republic of the Congo's major exports to China, according to global trade data.
Congolese people hope their government can work to strengthen relations with one of the country's most important partners. In addition to infrastructure, people say some of the other areas that China and the Republic of the Congo plan to develop include health, agriculture and security.
"For me I think cooperation should extend to the healthcare sector, as we know that Chinese are good at medicine," said Ragma Nganga, a university student in Brazzaville.
"Cooperation between China and Congo has been remarkable especially in infrastructure projects. Chinese have built many roads," said Josue Mifoundou, a local digital media practitioner.
In 2018, China and the Republic of the Congo signed a memorandum of understanding on projects under the Belt and Road Initiative - China's flagship infrastructure initiative that's helping link Asia, Europe, Latin America and Africa to China through ports, roads and railways.
Congolese people anticipate expanded cooperation with China
