Nestled in the Panxi region of Sichuan, the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture benefits from a unique natural greenhouse effect, making it a hub for fruit production. Huili County alone yields one million tons of pomegranates annually, Yanyuan County produces 600,000 tons of apples, and the region grows 800,000 tons of various grapes, earning it the nickname of a natural fruit basket.

For years, however, getting these fresh fruits to market was a major challenge, as transport relied on lengthy road routes that resulted in high spoilage rates and limited market reach. That all changed on August 28th, when the first “Yongliang” rural revitalization freight train departed from the Xichang South freight yard, operated by China Railway Chengdu Group’s logistics center. The train carried 300 tons of fresh grapes and mulberries in 14 “backpack-style” refrigerated containers, heading east with an expected arrival in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, after three days.

Recent visits to railway freight yards, orchards, and logistics companies in Xichang revealed the three-year effort behind this new transport corridor. At 6 a.m., dew still clung to the vines in a local vineyard, where farm manager Yan Hui moved quickly along the rows, clipping bunches of glossy purple grapes into insulated crates. “We must finish harvesting before the sun gets too strong,” he said, explaining that refrigerated trucks are on standby to rush the fruit to cold storage for pre-cooling, as every minute counts in minimizing losses.

Chen Haochuan, a member of the Ningbo assistance team stationed in Liangshan, noted that achieving long-term, stable, and low-cost transport for bulk agricultural products remains a difficult problem. Although eastern markets demand fresh fruit from Liangshan, the logistics were always the bottleneck. To tackle this, the team partnered with the logistics division of China Railway Chengdu Group and China Railway Special Cargo’s Chengdu branch to explore launching a dedicated freight service. Together, they spent about a month conducting field research, visiting apple bases in Yanyuan, cattle farms in Ningnan’s Xiyao town, the silk industrial park, and mulberry mushroom cultivation sites to understand the needs of growers and the specifics of cargo transportation. The findings led to a clear conclusion: cold-chain transport was essential to cut spoilage, and the freight trains needed to run on a regular schedule.

The opening of the new Chengdu-Kunming Railway in December 2022 significantly boosted transport capacity. That same month, a test train ran from Xichang to Chengdu, followed by test runs to Chongqing in June 2023 and to Ningbo in November 2023. The new “backpack-type” refrigerated containers represent a major upgrade in equipment. The cooling units are mounted externally on the container, powered by a distributed diesel system that can run continuously for over seven days on a single tank, eliminating the need for frequent power source switches. Previously, containers loaded at orchards required truck-powered cooling during short transfers to the rail yard, where they connected to ground power, and the multiple power changes often caused temperature fluctuations. “It’s like giving each shipment its own portable generator and mobile air conditioner,” explained Zhang Jingrui, a technician at China Railway Special Cargo’s Chengdu branch. Thanks to improvements in pre-cooling at the source, autonomous temperature control within containers, and more efficient transport, spoilage rates have dropped from 5% to 7% down to under 3%.

Yan Hui added, “In the past, we hesitated to take large orders for fear of spoilage during transit, but now we can confidently accept big contracts.” The freight train service now operates on a weekly basis. In 2025, it completed 27 trips carrying 117 refrigerated containers totaling nearly 2,000 tons of goods. Between January and July 2026, it has already handled 133 containers and about 3,500 tons, a more than 75% increase compared to the entire previous year. The variety of products shipped has expanded from apples and grapes to include soy sauce, mineral water, pear paste, milk, potatoes, mangoes, strawberries, and dozens of other items.