A train bound for Liege, Belgium set out from China's small commodities hub of Yiwu on Nov 18. [Photo by Wang Jianming/zjol.com.cn]

Eleven China-Europe freight service operators co-launched a special Yiwu-Liege cargo train carrying $1.44 million in e-commerce parcels from Yiwu, Zhejiang province on Nov 18.

The train will embark on a 16-day trip passing through Alashankou Port in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to deliver a number of twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) to Liege, Belgium.

The Yiwu-Liege route is the first China-Europe rail serving cross-border e-commerce purposes in the Yangtze River Delta region, which includes Shanghai and neighboring Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Anhui provinces.

A summit was held that same day to discuss further cooperation between the country's 11 biggest China-Europe freight service operators. Their combined cargo throughout accounts for 95 percent of the national total.

The China-Europe freight train, also known as the China Railway Express, is a network of rail services that carry cargo between China and Europe via Central Asia.

The service had made 10,180 cargo trips by Nov 5 this year, exceeding the number of total trips in 2019. It has transported 927,000 twenty-foot equivalent units, up 54 percent year on year.

The rail currently connects to 92 cities in 21 countries throughout Europe.