JINAN - A train carrying 24 refrigerated containers bound for the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Japan arrived at the railway station in the city of Weihai in East China's Shandong province at around 10 am Friday morning.

The vegetable-filled containers will be transferred to ships to complete their journey, marking the opening of a sea-land cold chain transportation service from east China to the two countries, according to sources with Weihai Railway Station.

A cold chain cargo train service from Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan province to Weihai was launched on June 25.

The train is scheduled to operate once a week, travelling through nine provinces on an 82-hour journey that covers 3,609 km.

The service will lower logistics costs by 30 percent and strengthen coordination between Weihai and inland cities, while increasing exports to ROK and Japan.

Weihai serves as an important port for exports to the two countries. Customs statistics showed that the exports to the two via Weihai Port reached 30.25 billion yuan ($4.6 billion) in 2016, 5.31 billion yuan of which was fresh agricultural products and seafood.

The State Council, China's cabinet, published a guideline on the development of a cold chain logistics framework in April, underscoring the importance of food safety and consumption upgrades. The document requires a significant increase in the use of cold chain transportation for fresh farm produce and perishable food by 2020.