​Postal freight train boosts cross-border e-commerce business between Urumqi, Almaty

A China-Europe freight train pulls out of Alataw Pass in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Feb. 7, 2021. (Xinhua/Ma Kai)

BEIJING, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- The cross-border e-commerce business between Almaty, Kazakhstan and Urumqi of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has been further facilitated as the first postal freight train service linking the two cities was launched recently.

The train has 50 containers carrying about 600 tonnes (metric tons) of international mail and cross-border e-commerce packages with a total value of about 29.5 million yuan.

Previously, the cross-border e-commerce postal packages in Xinjiang were mainly transported to overseas warehouses by railway containers, road or air. The Urumqi-Almaty postal freight train will provide sellers on China's cross-border e-commerce platforms with a stable, reliable and cost-effective export pathway.

According to He Guoqing, deputy head with the Department of Commerce of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, from January to October this year, Xinjiang's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.54 billion yuan.