CHONGQING -The first vehicles to be imported to China by rail arrived in the southwest city of Chongqing on Monday as the country's only international rail vehicle port begins operation.

Eighty imported vehicles from Germany, including brands like BMW, Benz and Volkswagen, arrived through the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Duisburg international railway, according to the municipal government's port office.

The vehicle import project was approved by the central government in July and is the first of its kind in west China.

The railway takes only 16 days from Duisburg in Germany to Chongqing, saving two thirds of time it takes to ship them, reducing the logistics costs remarkably.

The vehicles will be sold in the southwestern, eastern and southern markets.

Chongqing currently consumes about 60,000 imported vehicles every year and a third of them come from Europe, according to the office.

Most vehicle ports in operation are based in coastal regions such as Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Dalian.

As the largest manufacturer and consumer of vehicles in the world, China imported 1.17 million vehicles in 2013. It imported 681,000 vehicles in the first half of 2014, up 29.5 percent year on year.