Some of the containers arrived in Tianjin from other countries by sea.

"Tianjin Port, as one of the largest ports in northern China, receives a lot of imported cargo via the sea from places such as Japan, Korea, Europe and North America. The products travel to Tianjin by sea, and then make a transfer here and continue their journey by rail via China-Europe freight trains, to Eurasian countries, such as Mongolia and Russia," said Sun Kai, a manager at the Tianjin Freight Center of China Railway Beijing Group.

"Tianjin is located at the junction of the land and sea, both critical geographic locations in the Belt and Road Initiative. It is also the eastern starting point of the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor," said Zhang Jinchao, deputy director of the freight transport department of China Railway Beijing Group.