Wan Jing handed her bag to the staff and looked out the window at the Khorgos Railway Port Station. She was still a bit incredulous - she was going to Kazakhstan by train. This is her first time traveling abroad by train. The border inspection channels have been fully opened and the customs procedures have been processed quickly. Soon after, she completed the inspection with 57 other tourists and transferred to the Harbin train to continue westward. A few days ago, the Y207 tourist train they were on had just departed from Xi'an Station, crossed the Hexi Corridor and the Tianshan Mountains along the Millennium Silk Road, first visited Lake Selim, and then cleared customs and left the country. The departure of this train means that the China Central Asia cultural tourism train is moving from a pilot program to a normalized one.

The Silk Road special train departs again

At 9:39 am on June 29th, the Y207 China Central Asia cultural tourism train carrying 260 passengers departed from Xi'an Station and headed to Almaty, Kazakhstan. The train adopts 25T plus 19K full soft sleeper high soft bottom, and runs westward along the Longhai and Lanxin railways. After arriving at Yining Station on July 2, passengers will transfer to buses to visit the scenic spots such as Sayram Lake. On July 3, they will arrive at Khorgos Railway Port Station to handle exit formalities. 58 tourists will transfer here to take the train of the overseas section of Kazakhstan Railway, and leave the country at 13:22 on the same day. It is estimated that they will arrive at Almaty at 17:50 local time. This year, three cultural tourism trains of this type are planned to operate, and will gradually be normalized according to market demand in the future.

The car travels slowly with people

This special train runs for 16 days and 15 nights, offering exclusive services for passengers to leave their luggage in the soft sleeper compartment. During the day, passengers can get off to visit attractions and return to their original berth at night to rest, eliminating the hassle of repeatedly carrying luggage and frequent transfers. The special train focuses on slow travel and deep experience, creating a mobile Silk Road cultural reception room inside the train. During the journey, activities such as intangible cultural heritage printing, traditional Chinese medicine health preservation, folk music exhibitions, and interactive ethnic songs and dances will be carried out. The route is designed with two different themes: Line A, a journey along the Kazakhstan Silk Road, goes out of the country through Khorgos to Almaty to experience the nomadic customs of the grassland; B-Line Great Beauty Xinjiang Loop Tour, in-depth check-in of the secret landscapes of northern and southern Xinjiang, balancing cross-border experience with comprehensive sightseeing in Xinjiang.

Multi party linkage to ensure smooth communication

In order to ensure the efficient exit of international tourist trains, Khorgos Railway Port Station, together with customs and border inspection, has formulated a special service plan, optimized the inspection process, reasonably planned passenger diversion channels, flexibly deployed police forces, and opened sufficient inspection channels. The transportation and tickets for the overseas segment are the responsibility of Kazakhstan Railway State owned Joint Stock Company. The Chinese side shall hand over the handover to the Kazakh side in advance and handle the round-trip ticket procedures for the overseas segment for the passengers. Khorgos Station of Urumqi Railway Bureau of the State Railway has set up a service team to assist in baggage handling and set up a special waiting area to fully ensure the safe, fast and orderly customs clearance of special trains.Editor/Yang Meiling