The maiden voyage on the China-Russia express route between the China-Shanghai Cooperation Organization Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Area and Vladivostok, Russia, was launched on Wednesday at Qingdao Port in Shandong province.

The freight — 346 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of tires, daily necessities, machinery accessories and cosmetics worth of around $13 million — is expected to be delivered in four days to the largest Russian port on the Pacific Ocean, then taken to other cities in Russia and Europe via railway.

"The inaugural voyage is an important initiative of the demonstration area to explore a new multimodal transport system amid the COVID-19 pandemic disruption," said Zhang Xinzhu, secretary of the area's Party working committee and a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC's Qingdao Municipal Committee.

Sea-rail intermodal transport on the China-Russia Express can give full play to the advantages of rail and sea in the demonstration area, further improve its sea-rail intermodal transport channels and smooth the major international logistical channel of westward transportation from Qingdao to Europe.