URUMQI - Horgos, a port in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region that borders Kazakhstan, has seen a record daily number of outbound cargo trains as well as a record high of cargo export and import volume on a single day.

On Sunday, 18 freight trains with a total of 861 carriages crossed the border via the Horgos station to central Asia or Europe. On Monday, 31,700 tons of inbound and outbound cargo onboard trains passed through the border, the highest volume since the establishment of the station, according to the China Railway Urumqi Group Co Ltd.

A total of 2,116 trains carrying 3.04 million tons of cargo inbound and outbound have passed through the station so far this year, up 27.6 percent and 53.8 percent year-on-year.

Shi Hongjun, deputy director of the cargo handling workshop at the Horgos station, said, by means of optimizing the handling process, shortening loading time and facilitating the customs clearance, the average time of each train staying at the station has shortened from 12 hours to six to eight hours.

Cross-border railway transport has played an important role in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic and stabilizing trade this year, said Shi.