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CHENGDU, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- A rail cargo line departing from Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, has been extended to Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
The rail cargo service was extended from an existing line which connects Chengdu with the Dutch city of Tilburg, said Cheng Jie, vice manager of Chengdu International Railway Services Company.
Trains depart from Chengdu to export mechanical and electric parts to Rotterdam, Europe's largest port. A single trip takes 13 days.
Chengdu has planned three major rail line services to Europe, with a northern route to Germany and the Netherlands, a middle route to Turkey and beyond, and another northern route to Moscow.
Extensions will be made to reach more European cities in the future, Chen said.
Demand for rail cargo service between China and Europe, an alternative to slower and riskier sea freight and much costlier air cargo, has exploded in recent years.
The National Development and Reform Commission said there will be around 5,000 cargo trains running between China and Europe annually.
Some 43 transport hubs will be created by 2020, and 43 railway lines will be built.
There were 1,881 China-Europe cargo trains in service as of the end of June, which transported imports and exports worth 17 billion U.S. dollars.
The European Union has been China's largest trading partner for more than a decade, while China is one of the EU's biggest sources of imports. Bilateral trade amounted to 3.51 trillion U.S. dollars in 2015.
