Railroads transported a record 6.87 million tons of goods through the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region city of Manzhouli, China's largest railway transport city, in the first half of this year, up 46 percent over the same period last year.

An official with the Manzhouli Customs House attributed the record railway transport volume to a series of new measures taken to improve custom services.

The customs house has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with 30 Chinese businesses to foster an environment in which all parties combine their efforts to improve custom services.

It has also reformed the custom clearance procedures on the import and export of timber and oil which involve large freight volume and little risk.

As a result, Manzhouli imported 3.33 million cubic meters of timber and 1.14 million tons of crude oil in the first six months of this year, representing a year-on-year increase of 24 percent and 124 percent respectively. The time for handling each batch of goods was also reduced from 19 hours to eight hours on average.

Manzhouli handles 60 percent of the volume of freight between China and Russia.