Zehong, the largest container ship on the Yangtze River, arrived at Taicang Port, Jiangsu province, on May 9.

The ship is 203 meters in length, 32 meters in width and has an 11.95 meter draft (the vertical distance between the water line and the bottom of the ship's hull). It can carry 2,500 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers weighing a total of 41,264 tons. After the cargo is loaded, the ship will leave for Xiamen in Fujian province.

Taicang Port has handled an increasing number of container vessels this year and in the first four months, it handled 1.05 million TEU containers, an increase of 30.97 percent compared with the same period last year.

The port aims to take advantage of the Belt and Road Initiative to enhance cooperation with other ports along the Yangtze River and open shipping lines to Southeast Asian countries.

The Belt and Road Initiative, namely the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, was put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013.