A new China-Europe rail-sea cargo transport route was launched Friday in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The first train carrying Chinese goods left Urumqi Friday, bound for the Port of Riga in Latvia, via Kazakhstan and Russia. The goods will then be transported to Rotterdam, the Netherlands, by sea.

The new rail-sea route will shorten the distance by more than 1,000 kilometers and cut the transportation time from more than 20 days to just 14 days, said Liu Changlin, general manager of an international logistics company in Xinjiang.

The new route was launched under cooperation between China and Kazakhstan to further reduce logistics costs.