Northeast China's Jilin province's China-Europe freight train shipped 147 BESTUNE X80 five-door SUVs made by auto manufacturer FAW Group Corporation -- based in Changchun -- to Russia on Oct 30.

It marked the first time the province has used the freight train service to export its own brand of vehicles.

FAW's BESTUNE X80 model is very popular with Russian consumers and the productivity of FAW's Russian factory is approaching capacity. As a result, the completely built-up -- or CBU -- vehicle export mode is being adopted to meet the demands of the Russian market.

Compared with sea transportation, the vehicles sent by the China-Europe freight train can reach the Russian market more quickly and can directly enter the storage areas designated by Russia. The cost of rail transportation is almost equal to that of sea shipments and it's more than 10 days faster.

Over the past five years since the province's China-Europe freight train service -- the Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe route -- started operations, the proportion of local goods carried has increased significantly, boosting the vigorous development of the province's export-oriented economy.

Statistics showed that in the first three quarters of the year, the traffic volume of Jilin's China-Europe freight train service (Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe, Changchun-Hamburg) increased significantly, with a total of 10,283 TEUs -- or twenty-foot equivalent units -- of goods sent, an increase of 27.51 percent year-on-year.