Train loaded with vehicles heads to Central Asia

A freight train carrying 261 vehicles made by a Chinese company departed from Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, on Tuesday, bound for five Central Asian countries, the Shijiazhuang International Land Port said.

It is the first double-deck train for transporting vehicles — called a longche or cage-train — to originate in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the port said.

Each of the train's 29 compartments can carry nine to 10 automobiles, which can be driven directly onto the train, thus it greatly increases the efficiency of loading and unloading.

The train will arrive in Horgos, a border port in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. The vehicles will then be carried on trucks to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The vehicles were made by Great Wall Motors, which is based in Baoding, Hebei.