HANGZHOU, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- A new China-Europe freight train route linking the city of Jinhua in east China's Zhejiang Province to Dourges in France was launched Thursday.

This is Jinhua's first freight train route to France, with the number of China-Europe freight train routes from the city totaling 14.

The first train on the route left Jinhua at around 9 a.m. Thursday, carrying about 3.1 million U.S. dollars worth of cargo including construction machinery and epidemic prevention materials.

Traveling about 11,000 km, the train will pass through Kazakhstan, Russia, Germany and other countries and is expected to arrive in Dourges in 18 days.

The cargo on the train will be distributed to France, Spain, Italy, Poland and other countries from an intercontinental logistics center in Dourges.

As of Thursday, Jinhua had launched 368 China-Europe freight trains carrying 30,378 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cargo this year, up 368 percent year on year.