URUMQI, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Horgos Port, a major railway hub in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has handled over 7,000 China-Europe (Central Asia) freight train trips since the beginning of this year, according to railway sources on Tuesday.

The railway port processes freight train trips along 90 operational routes linking 46 cities and regions across 18 countries, as stated by a staff member of the China Railway Urumqi Group Co., Ltd.

Cargoes transported via these routes include more than 200 categories, such as auto parts, electrical and electronic products, construction materials, steel, cultural and sports products, and daily necessities.

In May, the port implemented a reform to expedite customs clearance, reducing the passage time for imported goods from two to three days to under 16 hours, a decrease of 70 percent. The processing time for local export goods was cut from six hours to just one, a decrease of 80 percent. The real-time data-sharing between customs and railway authorities enables live tracking of logistics and train information, boosting overall customs clearance efficiency for trains by more than 50 percent.

Situated on the China-Kazakhstan border, Horgos Port and Alashankou Port, also known as Alataw Pass, are Xinjiang's two primary rail gateways.

According to China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., the China-Europe (Central Asia) freight train service shipped more than 220,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of finished automobiles in 2024.

As of June, a total of 128 Chinese cities have been connected to the China-Europe freight train service network, extending to 229 cities in 26 European countries and over 100 cities in 11 Asian countries. ■