The Chinese army has sent its largest ever contingent for an overseas military exercise to the Vostok drills. The military operation involves aircraft, ground troop exercises and much more. CGTN's Ge Yunfei is in Russia with the Chinese army witnessing the whole process.  

Russia's military hasn't hosted a series of drills this large since 1981, the Soviet era. Vostok 2018 gets underway Tuesday, with nearly 3,200 Chinese troops in position ready, for action. The involved Chinese land and air forces are from China's Northern Theater Command, which borders Russia.

GE YUNFEI TSUGOL TRAINING RANGE, RUSSIA "Beginning in late August, over 1,000 pieces of military equipment like tanks and infantry vehicles have arrived at their designated locations in Russia, from China, by rail. Since then, several rounds of military training have been carried out."

On August 16th, the first train carrying soldiers and equipment started from China's Inner Mongolia, heading for East Russia. The Chinese army used 28 trains to finish all the transportation of their land forces. Then they mobilized to the Tsugol Training Range, the main drill site of Vostok-2018. Captain Zhang Lei, a company commander in a synthetic armored battalion, is among those soldiers.

CAPTAIN ZHANG LEI PLA 78TH ARMY CORPS "I've never experienced an overseas deployment of this scale. Previously, would project small-scale forces between our domestic training camps."

Captain Zhang says most of the soldiers have never gone abroad. It's not only a test of the common soldiers' mental endurance, but also for the equipment.

CAPTAIN ZHANG LEI PLA 78TH ARMY CORPS "For the military equipment, like these armored infantry vehicles, we just received them less than a year ago. We haven't fully mastered their capabilities. So such a long distance deployment and mobilization is a great test for the equipment."

There are also six JH-7 fighter-bombers from the Chinese Air Force. And Captain Gao Puyu will fly one of them to attend the China-Russia military parade at Tsugol.

CAPTAIN GAO PUYU, FIGHTER-BOMBER PILOT CHINA AIR FORCE "We flew from our base in China, and stopped at another Chinese airport for a while, then we're guided to cross the border to reach this Russian military airport."

Before August 29th, the Chinese army finished transporting its necessary land and air forces. Experts say the army will benefit a lot from this experience. Ge Yunfei, CGTN, Tsugol Training Range.