Since China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative, there's been a dramatic increase in the number of cargo trains running between China and Shanghai Cooperation Organization countries in Central Asia, boosting trade along the way. Xu Mengqi reports from northwest China's Shaanxi province.

Refined, filtered and then packaged, with a label that says "from Kazakhstan". This oil-processing factory is one of the biggest in Northwest China's Xi'an city, and Aiju, the company that owns it, has been importing grains and edible oil from Kazakhstan since 2016.

LIU DONGMENG, DEPUTY MANAGER XI'AN AIJU GRAIN AND OIL INDUSTRY GROUP CO., LTD "Kazakhstan has a purely natural environment that is ideal for producing high-quality grains. It's population is relatively small. Most of the arable land is idle, and we happened to be searching for good grains and edible oil."

From two thousand to tens of thousands tons, Aiju's imports from Kazakhstan have grown exponentially over the past two years. And thanks to an express railway that connects Xi'an with Almaty, the delivery of goods usually takes less than a week, and Aiju isn't the only beneficiary of the quicker transport time. Yuan Xiaojun's company operates two cargo train services between Xi’an and Central Asia. He says trade volume has risen dramatically.

YUAN XIAOJUN, GENERAL MANAGER XI’AN INT'L INLAND PORT MULTIMODAL TRANSPORTATION CO., LTD "From January 2018 till now we operated 180 trains between Xi'an and Central Asia. Last year it was once or twice per week. Now it's risen to two to three trains per day."

XU MENGQI XI'AN, SHAANXI PROVINCE "The cargo train behind me is nicknamed Chang'an Hao. The name is a nod to the trade history between China and Central Asia, because Chang'an, known as today's Xi'an city, was once the starting point of an ancient trade route that ran through Central Asia to Europe. Since China brought up the idea to revive this route, increasing cargo train services to and from Xi'an have been put into operation, creating trade opportunities along the way."

Yuan Zhaohui has also hitched a ride on the revived trade route. In 2015, he and his Kazakh wife started an online platform selling light industrial and consumer electronics products to central Asian countries and their business has continued to grow.

YUAN ZHAOHUI, CEO XI'AN SILK ROAD ELECTRONIC COMMERCE CO., LTD "Last year we had more than 800,000 orders and the value of exported goods totaled more than 9 million US dollars. This year we estimate it to exceed 100 million."

But it's not just business success that's making Yuan Zhaohui smile.  There is also the blessing of a happy marriage. Xu Mengqi, CGTN, Xi'an, Shaanxi province.