NANCHANG -- The Ganzhou port in East China's Jiangxi province opened its first China-Europe freight train on Thursday.

The cargo trains will carry Russian timber to Ganzhou and then return to Kyrgyzstan loaded with furniture.

The new route is expected to build Ganzhou into a port for international timber trade, local officials said.

China opened its first trans-continental freight train route in July 2013. Several Chinese cities, including Chongqing, Chengdu, Changsha, Hefei, Yiwu, Suzhou and Harbin, have already launched similar freight train services to Europe.

In 2016, the number of China-Europe freight trains surpassed 1,700, including 1,130 outbound trains and 572 inbound trains, an increase of 109 percent year on year.