A China-Europe freight train pulls out of Alataw Pass in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, April 12, 2020. (File photo: Xinhua/Sadat)

A China-Europe freight train from Turkey entered China Thursday via Horgos Port in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the local customs said.

The cargo train is Turkey's first for exports to China, which departed Istanbul on Dec. 4 and is bound for the northwestern Chinese city of Xi'an. It is scheduled to arrive at its final destination on Saturday, covering a distance of 8,693 km. The train is carrying 1,383 refrigerators worth about 10.4 million yuan (about 1.59 million U.S. dollars).

While international shipping and air transport logistics have been held back by the COVID-19 epidemic, China-Europe freight trains have buttressed the stability of the global industrial and supply chains, according to Horgos customs on the China-Kazakhstan border.

It is also the first return China-Europe freight train that passed through the "southern corridor," a transport network that includes the trans-Caspian corridor and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, said the customs.

"The successful launch of this train will bring more logistics and freight resources into the 'southern corridor,' turn the advantages of the route into market benefits, and inject new momentum into the joint construction of the Belt and Road and the building of an open economy," said Chen Fang with the customs.