Northwest China's Gansu province saw its foreign trade volume hit 29.6 billion yuan ($4.55 billion) in the first seven months of 2021, up 42.6 percent year-on-year, according to Lanzhou Customs.

In the first seven months, Gansu's exports and imports to countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative rose by 44.8 percent year-on-year to 13.96 billion yuan, comprising 47.2 percent of the total foreign trade.

During the period, the total import value was 24.82 billion yuan, up 55.4 percent year-on-year, with growth in the imports of metal ore. The total export value was 4.78 billion yuan with exported mechanical and electrical products totaling 2.67 billion yuan, up 6.8 percent year-on-year.

Chen Meiling contributed to this story.