Running between north China and Germany the first transcontinental container train between the two countries has gone 'live' after a 20-month period of testing, said a local railway official.

The train, which can carry 100 international standard containers, will travel 9,814 km over 15 days through six countries from Hohhot, capital of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to Frankfurt. .

Named 'Ruyi', which means "complying with one's wishes" in Chinese, the train has covered the route 13 times since tests began in March last year, said Yang Junjie, an official with the Hohhot Railway Bureau. And the train will cut transport times and costs, said Guo Jian, another official with the Bureau.

'Ruyi' took just 14.5 days to travel from Hohhot to Duisburg in Germany while a container ship took at least 40 days, said Guo.

Backed by companies in China's Inner Mongolia, Mongolia, the Republic of Belarus, Russia and Germany, the train will transport various materials such as coke to Duisburg, andalusite to Slovakia and home appliances to the Czech Republic and Romania.

It would return with raw materials for electronic products and home appliances. With an annual freight capacity of 2,500 containers, or 50,000 tons, the train will operate twice a month.

The train had transported 620 standard containers, weighing 12,400 tons, with minerals from Inner Mongolia, rapeseed from northwest China's Gansu Province and textiles from Guangdong Province to Europe to far, said Yang.

(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2006)