Xinhua News Agency, Changsha, January 18th Title: "Southeast Asia Fruit Express" opens into an inconspicuous mountain town

Xinhua News Agency reporter Yu Chunsheng

The Spring Festival is approaching, and Zou Ronghua, the head of Xingda Boutique Fruit Wholesale in Huaihua City, Hunan Province, ushers in the busiest period of the year. At around 7 a.m. on the 17th, when the reporter met Zou Ronghua, his cell phone kept ringing. "Today, a new batch of Longan from Thailand has arrived, and downstream wholesalers are rushing to ask for goods." Zou Ronghua said.

"Fruits are selling fresh. As the Chinese New Year is approaching, the market demand continues to increase. Taking advantage of the good business before the New Year, you can earn more money by bringing more goods." Zou Ronghua pointed to the longan that was loading and unloading and told reporters, "The transportation time of this batch of Thai longans is short and the freshness is good, so someone came to get the goods very early."

In the early morning of January 17, workers from Jiahui Fruit Park in Huaihua City, Hunan Province were transporting longans from Thailand. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yu Chunsheng

Huaihua is located in the hinterland of western Hunan, and does not lie along the border or by the sea. How can Southeast Asian fruits from thousands of miles away be quickly transported? To answer this question, you need to call back the clock to more than 5 hours ago.

In the early morning of the 17th, Huaihua International Land Port was brightly lit, and the gantry crane was slowly hoisting a white container to the truck, which contained the Thai longan ordered by Zou Ronghua.

In the early morning of January 17, at Huaihua International Land Port, Hunan, a gantry crane was hoisting the cold chain container to the truck. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yu Chunsheng

"This batch of 23.5-ton longan was sent from Chiang Mai, Thailand on January 11. After landing to Vientiane, Laos, the cold chain train of the Shanghai-Laos Railway arrived at Huaihua International Land Port on the evening of the 15th. With the opening of the logistics channel, the two ends of the road-rail intermodal transport are closer, ensuring that the goods are transferred as they arrive, improving the time of transportation throughout the international logistics, and the transportation time and cost have been significantly reduced compared with the past." Liu Jie, the head of Hunan Changhuai Cold Chain Logistics Co., Ltd., who is responsible for the shipment of this batch of goods, said.

Huaihua is one of the member units of the "13+2" inter-provincial consultation and cooperation mechanism of the Western Land-Sea New Corridor, and is also the only ASEAN freight assembly center in Hunan. In recent years, Huaihua has leveraged its location advantages to continuously strengthen the construction of international land ports, and opened seven international railway logistics channels including China-Laos, China-Vietnam, China-Myanmar. More and more fruits from Southeast Asia gather in the mountainous town of Huaihua via railways and then distributed to other regions. A "Southeast Asia Fruit Express" is quietly forming.

According to statistics, as of the end of 2024, Huaihua International Land Port has launched 210 standard boxes of railway special cold chain trains, with its main products including Southeast Asia bananas, fresh durians and longans.

"Huaihua International Land Port is right at your doorstep, but I felt that it had little to do with me before, and I didn't expect the transportation to be so good. If I have the opportunity, I plan to increase the proportion of goods obtained from the land port this year." Zou Ronghua told reporters.

The arrival of this batch of longans not only allowed Zou Ronghua to see new business opportunities, but also had important economic significance for Huaihua. It is an attempt by the local government to strengthen the local industry based on logistics channels.

"This batch of longans is the first batch of goods imported and sold locally by local enterprises in Huaihua through the land-port cold chain train." A relevant person in charge of Hunan Huaihua International Land Port Development Co., Ltd. introduced that in relying on logistics channels to empower local development, Land Port will strive to promote the maturity of local logistics, sales and other systems, attract related industries to gather, and help Huaihua build a distribution center for cold chain products in the southwest region.

In less than a day, the batch of longans ordered by Zou Ronghua was sold out. At present, the second batch of longans he ordered is heading north along the China-Laos Railway and is expected to arrive in Huaihua soon, bringing more New Year sweetness to the local people.