At sunrise on Friday, three fully-loaded trucks left Urumqi, the
capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, for
Taldykorgan in east Kazakhstan, marking the opening of one of 22
new transport routes between the two countries.
"The newly-opened routes will connect the two nations' border
cities as well as a network of inner cities, which is conducive to
the development of logistics and trade," said Zhang Nan, vice
director of the Xinjiang Foreign Transport Administration
Office.
China has now opened 87 direct transport routes linking
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan -- 43 passenger and 44 cargo
routes.
(Xinhua News Agency September 1, 2006)