The groundbreaking ceremony for the Hohhot International Agricultural Cold Chain Logistics Center was held in Hohhot, capital city of North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, on Sept 2.

As one of the key projects in the city's plan to establish a national backbone cold chain logistics base, this center will help Hohhot become an international hub for cold chain logistics, serving Inner Mongolia, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and the whole country, with a northern gateway to Russia, Mongolia, and Europe.

The project in Yuquan district is financed and constructed by Chongqing Mingpinfu Group, with a total investment of 2.5 billion yuan ($344 million).

The main construction includes a 350,000-metric-ton multi-temperature zone cold storage, processing and sorting center, distribution center, exhibition and sales center, imported cold chain distribution center, and a big data operation center.

It will accommodate over 8,000 domestic and international cold chain food types, providing comprehensive cold chain logistics services such as freezing, refrigeration, preservation, constant temperature storage, quick freezing, trading, processing, and distribution. An annual transaction volume of 30 billion yuan is expected, creating more than 30,000 job opportunities.

The establishment of this center is a crucial step towards enhancing Hohhot's agricultural cold chain logistics system and advancing its position as a prominent regional transportation hub.