State media announced that Jiangsu Province in east China marked the departure of its 2,000th freight train to Europe and Asia.

The cargo train — loaded with 100 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of freight — departed from Xuzhou City and will leave the country via Horgos Port in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, heading for Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

"As of Wednesday, the number of freight trains operating from Jiangsu to Europe and Asia increased by 11.1% year-on-year," Xinhua said in its report.

It added that this year alone, the province has opened three new freight routes to the Republic of Belarus, Laos, and Russia.

Currently, Jiangsu has stably operated 24 freight train routes, covering 26 countries in Europe and Asia.