At 10:00 on May 9, the first China-Europe freight train of China Post special train (Dongguan-Vilnius), pulled out slowly from Guangdong (Shilong) International Railway Logistics Base, and will arrive in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, in 16 days. The departure of the special train marks that Dongguan has become the first city in South China to transport mails by the China-Europe freight train.

This special train is full of 41 standard containers of 260 tons of international mail from Dongguan and surrounding areas. The mails includes clothing, shoes, hats, toys, bags, 3C electronic products, household appliances and other local high-quality products. The train will leave China via  Khorgos port in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, passing through Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus, and will arrive in Lithuania, from where the international mail will be distributed to buyers from 26 European countries such as Spain, Britain, Germany, Italy, etc.

As the COVID-19 spreads globally, the international passenger flights in China are blocked, which has caused a great impact on the international logistics channels of the cross-border e-commerce industry. At the critical moment, led by Dongguan municipal government, postal enterprises actively communicate with the customs, China Railway, Sinotrans Limited and other units to respond quickly, and successfully open the first China Post special freight train in South China within half a month. Dongguan postal sub-branch actively collects the mails sent to Europe from Dongguan and its surrounding areas, sends them to Dongguan International Mail Exchange Office, completes customs declaration, and coordinates Sinotrans Limited and departments of China Railway to apply for overseas railway and transportation resources. Huangpu Customs further optimizes the supervision process, and ensures the smooth and efficient transportation of the special freight train by realizing all-the-way customs clearance after being locked.

Dongguan-Europe freight train is an important project to promote the Belt and Road construction in Dongguan and the connectivity with countries along the Belt and Road. Especially in the context of the spread of the COVID-19 and the sudden decline in international transport capacity, the launch of the railway mail transportation will promote the multilateral trade between Dongguan, even southern China, and the countries along the Belt and Road, providing logistics guarantee for enterprises to resume work and production.