The first transcontinental container train between China and Germany has begun formal operation, drastically cutting time and costs, the state media reported today.he service was formally opened after a 20-month test run.he train, which can carry 100 international standard containers, will travel 9,814 km over 15 days through six countries from Hohhot, capital of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to Frankfurt in Germany.amed "Ruyi", which means "complying with one's wishes" in Chinese, the train had run the route 13 times since tests began in March last year, an official with the Hohhot Railway Bureau in Inner Mongolia said.he train would cut transport times and costs, another official with the Hohhot Railway Bureau.uyi took just 14.5 days to run from Hohhot to Duisburg in Germany, while a container ship took at least 40 days.aunched by companies in north China's Inner Mongolia, Mongolia, Belarus, Russia and Germany, the trans-national train would take coke to Duisburg, andalusite to Slovakia and home appliances to the Czech Republic and Romania, Xinhua news agency reported.
t would bring back raw materials for electronic products and home appliances.ith an annual freight capacity of 2,500 containers, or 50,000 tonnes, the train will operate twice a month. It had taken 620 standard containers, weighing 12,400 tonnes, holding rare-earth minerals from Inner Mongolia, rapeseed from northwest China's Gansu Province and textiles from south China's Guangdong Province, to Europe to date.