The Budapest-Xiamen international freight train arrives in Xiamen, East China's Fujian province, on Nov 9. [Photo/chinanews.com]

A new China-Europe express train from Budapest, capital of Hungary, arrived in Xiamen, a coastal city in East China's Fujian province, on Nov 9, according to Xiamen's transportation authorities.

The freight train left Budapest on Oct 21 carrying 44 containers and arrived in Xiamen after a 19-day journey. This marked the official launch of the city's Haicang Multimodal Transport Customs Supervision Center.

The supervision center, established by the Xiamen Area of the China (Fujian) Pilot Free Trade Zone, is a collection and distribution center for cargo being shipped via the China Railway Express. It will take full advantage of Xiamen's convenient location and transit connections, and is expected to be a part of the Silk Road and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, helping bolster the city's reputation as a sea-rail combined transportation hub.

The center will help supervise the sea-rail combined transportation system and offer faster customs clearance for imported goods, which will greatly simplify customs supervision procedures, an official from Xiamen Customs said.

Xiamen has introduced five regular routes to Europe since the launch of the China-Europe Railway Express (Xiamen) in August 2015. In the first 10 months of this year, the train has made 180 trips carrying 13,600 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers with $535 million worth of goods.