Railways plays key role in China-Europe trade

A freight train heading to Duisburg, Germany pulls out of Weihai Port, east China's Shandong Province, on September 15. This is the first China-Europe freight train departing from Shandong, the third largest provincial economy in China.

So far, there has been over 5,000 freight trains - unanimously named the China-Europe freight train since June last year - shuttling between the two ends of the Eurasian continent.

The China-Europe freight train, starting from scratch five years ago, now connects China with 32 cities in 12 European countries. Chongqing, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Wuhan and Xi'an are the main cities connecting with Central Asia and Europe through the freight train service. All are located in southwest and central China where the central authorities have issued special policies to promote opening-up and development.

The lowering of logistics costs, the increasingly close cross-border exchanges, and the rise of the e-commerce all boost the fast growth of the international railway transport service. Local governments’ various support forms another important reason why the railway transport has developed so fast.

Wuwei, northwest China's Gansu Province, launched an international freight train to Kazakhstan's Alma-Ata in 2014, making the inland city, previously non-existent on the international trade map, an important hub of transport between west China and Central Asia.

The freight train services, which leave China through the Alataw Pass and Khorgos Pass in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Erenhot and Manzhouli in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and Suifenhe in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, are making land ports busy and prosperous.

Wine from Spain, cheese from the Netherlands, fruits from Poland, cars from Germany, and mother and baby products and furniture from the other European countries come to China by railway; whereas articles of daily use - clothes, computers and machinery parts reach the European market.

Along the railways spring out new logistics, industrial and commercial centers, creating tens of thousands jobs for locals.

Railway administrative departments of China, Belarus, Germany, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Poland and Russia signed a China-Europe freight train cooperation agreement on April 20.