A container is being lifted in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang province. The Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe trains travel along nine international routes to over 35 countries and regions. [Photo/IC]

Yiwu, an export-oriented county known for its global-scale wholesale market for small commodities, is making good use of its rails lines to European countries, local media reported on July 31.

Customs statistics reveals that the Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe trains contributed to 4.51 billion yuan ($655 million) worth of imports and exports, up 8 percent year-on-year. The import value was $980 million, surging by 39.1 percent.With more freight trains departing from Yiwu, the containers are coming from more high-tech and high value-added areas, including vehicle components, power engines, and medical devices.

"In the past, we mainly imported wine and food," said Ye Xiaodong, who works for a customs declaration agency. "Nowadays, the majority of imports are with high added value, such as home appliances and medical devices."

To date, the rails lines from Yiwu have covered all the counties and regions along the ancient Silk Road, including Spain, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, Latvia, Belarus, the United Kingdom, and the Czech Republic.

It has also been serving as a logistics hub and distribution center for imports and exports in Zhejiang province and the Yangtze River Delta region.

Under an above-ground temperature of about 40 C, customs officers inspect a container filled with dental devices imported from Spain in Yiwu, Zhejiang province on July 30. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]