The city of Harbin’s railway container distribution center, in Heilongjiang province, one of China’s 18 key railway container hubs and the largest of its kind in the Northeast, will be going into operation by the end of this month, city planners report.

The Municipal Development and Reform Commission explained that the new center will help the non-transit delivery of containers among the total of 18 hubs and that it is expected to provide inspection and quarantine and customs services and become an international logistics platform.

It will also help develop cross-border container transportation and attract multinationals so the province can become a bonded storage center for domestic and foreign trade companies. This all is part of a larger provincial Land and Maritime Silk Road Economic Belt strategy, which is itself a part of China's "One Belt, One Road" program, proposed by President Xi Jinping, in 2013.

The railway logistics center construction projects now taking place across the country include three national centers -- in Heilongjiang’s cities of Harbin and Suifenhe and Inner Mongolia’s Manzhouli -- and some regional railway logistics centers, all of which will form a transportation network nationwide and improve storage, distribution, and trade when combined with other forms of transport.