Since regular operations were resumed on Dec 17, 2013, the railway from Hunchun in China’s Jilin province to Makharino in Russia has gradually become a transport artery of Hunchun’s international demonstration zone and the province as a whole.

Statistics show that 549,000 tons of freight worth $29 million passed along the railway border by the end of November, accounting for some two thirds of Hunchun’s total imports and exports.

More than 2,100 visitors also entered or left Hunchun through the railway border during the same period.

Finished in 1997, the Hunchun-Makharino railway is a major project of the Greater Tumen Initiative proposed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). It constitutes a main passageway that connects the Sea of Japan, Russia, China and Mongolia.

The railway is also an important part of the Hunchun demonstration zone’s transport network and the first in Jilin to transport freight to and from Russia.

Since it resumed operations last year, the once one-way cargo train has been transporting such goods as coal, fine iron powder, mineral water and flour to and from Russia. The railway has also attracted the Shenhua Group, the China National Coal Group and local companies to do business with Russia.