Various statistical analyses were conducted to determine the relationship between economic indicators for Chinese provinces and railway freight volume . The results indicated that southeastern coastal areas such as Shanghai and Guangzhou received foreign capital and experienced rapid economic growth in secondary and tertiary industries . On the one hand, railway freight transport is centered on coal production regions like Dongbei and Huabei . In addition, a cluster analysis was performed on the distribution ratio classified by destination province for the railway freight volume from each province. The results indicate that China as a whole can be divided into seven railway freight transport zones such that the freight distribution ratios for destination provinces are similar for neighboring provinces.