NANJING, July 30 (Xinhua) -- A freight train left the city of Xuzhou in east China's Jiangsu Province on Friday for Vietnam's Hanoi, marking the launch of a new freight train route between China and Vietnam.

The freight train, loading 72 TEUs of glass bottles, plastic products, and maternal and childcare facilities, is expected to arrive in Hanoi within seven days after a journey of about 2,985 km, nearly half the time of traditional waterway transportation.

As an important country along the Belt and Road and a member of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Vietnam is the third country to which Xuzhou opened international freight train services this year, following Belarus and Mongolia.

You Xingjun, deputy head of Xuzhou Customs, said that local customs authorities will give full play to the logistics advantages of such trains, and promote stability and quality of foreign trade.

The China-Vietnam freight train service operated 173 trips in the first half of 2022, up 19.3 percent year on year, according to China Railway Nanning Group Co., Ltd.