XI'AN, Jan. 20 -- A new international freight train route has been opened between Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, and Poti, a port city in Georgia, marking the establishment of the 18th main route operated by the China-Europe freight train (Xi'an) service.

At 2 p.m. on Friday, a train carrying 55 containers loaded with exported goods, such as automobiles and large machinery, departed Xi'an. After exiting China through the Khorgos port in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, it will pass through Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan before arriving in Poti.

The entire route adopts multimodal rail-sea-rail transport, covering a distance of 7,829 km with a transportation time of approximately 15 days.

Xi'an handled 5,351 China-Europe freight trains in 2023, up 15.3 percent year on year.

Since the freight train service was launched in 2013, Xi'an has handled over 21,400 trains, with destinations expanded to 45 countries and regions in Eurasia, according to the Xi'an Chan-Ba International Port, the service's operator.