The first China–South Asia highway-railway multimodal freight train pulled into Shigatse in Tibet autonomous region on May 15, having set off from Dongchuan Railway Logistics Center in Lanzhou in Gansu province four days earlier.

The 86 containers, carrying Chinese domestic appliances and commodities, will be loaded onto trucks in the Tibetan city to be transported by road through Guirong Port at the China-Nepal border to its final destination of Katmandu, capital of Nepal.

The highway-railway multimodal freight link will take around 10 days in total, 35 days fewer than the previous land and sea route. The greater transport efficiency will mean that more Chinese products will enter the South Asian market, according to authorities.

The freight route is made of three parts: a 2,431-kilometer-long Lanzhou-Shigatse railway section; a highway from Shigatse in Tibet to Gyirong Port; and a second railway section of 160 km from Gyirong to Katmandu.

The freight line starts from Lanzhou, a key transport hub in Northwest China and the junction of many important railway lines such as Baotou-Lanzhou, Lanzhou-Urumqi and Lanzhou-Xining.

Nepal was chosen as the destination of the freight route, due to its increasing trade with China.

China and Nepal reached agreements on bilateral cooperation and implementation of the route to Nepal when Prime Minister, K. P. Sharma Oli visited China and met with Chinese leaders in March this year.