New cargo train service launched between China, Tajikistan

File photo taken on Nov. 9, 2020 shows a train carrying tires, auto parts, electronic components and other goods from Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) preparing to leave the Qingdao multimodal transportation center in the China-SCO local economic and trade cooperation demonstration zone in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng)

QINGDAO, July 5 (Xinhua) -- A new cargo train service was launched Monday between east China's Shandong Province and Tajikistan, a member country of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

A train carrying 100 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units left the intermodal transportation center of the demonstration zone for China-SCO local economic and trade cooperation in the city of Qingdao for Dushanbe at 9:10 a.m., marking the inauguration of the service.

The train, loaded with machinery and construction materials worth 1.66 million U.S. dollars, is expected to arrive at Dushanbe in about 15 days.

Liu Jianjun, director of the administrative committee of the demonstration zone, said the new route is the eighth express line between China and SCO countries operated by its intermodal transportation center in Qingdao.

In the first half of this year, the center operated 297 trains to Europe and Asia, up by 82 percent year on year.