This aerial photo taken on Oct. 9, 2023 shows a freight train running along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Zhang Ailin)

Cargo train trips via the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor had exceeded 9,000 this year as of Tuesday, backed by vigorous trade between China and Southeast Asian countries.

Launched in 2017, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor is a trade and logistics passage jointly built by provincial-level regions in western China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations members.

Trade via the corridor has maintained a strong growth trend in recent years and continuously promoted regional high-quality economic development.

"The number of train trips via the corridor is expected to top 9,300 this year, up more than 50 times from 178 when the service was inaugurated in 2017," noted Li Tailin, chairman of Guangxi Beibu Gulf International Transport Development Co., LTD.

As of October, over 30,000 train trips had been made via the corridor since 2017, Li added.

The trade corridor has significantly raised shipping efficiency. Xu Zhigang, manager of a logistics company's international service department, said they had to make time-consuming procedures to import raw materials from South America. In 2019, the company began importing goods via the corridor.

"The shipping cost is basically the same as the previous method, but the transportation time has been cut by 10 to 20 days," Xu noted.

In recent years, Beibu Gulf Port Group has accelerated infrastructure upgrading and continued to boost the efficiency of rail-sea intermodal service.

Currently, Beibu Gulf Port has opened 76 container routes, covering more than 200 ports in over 100 countries and regions.