On Dec 9, 2014, the first Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe freight train arrived in Madrid, Spain after a 13,000-km journey and marked the opening of a new chapter in the history of China-Europe trade.

Over the past seven years, Yiwu, a county-level city in East China's Zhejiang province, has launched 17 China-Europe freight train routes that link it to 101 railway stations abroad. The sphere of influence of these routes now spans 160 plus cities in 50 countries on the Eurasian continent.

In terms of both the number of routes and the sphere of influence, the Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe freight train service eclipses most other China-Europe freight train services conducted by other Chinese cities.

More than 3,300 Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe freight train trips have been completed over the past seven years. Over 100,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cargos have been transported this way so far this year.

Currently, exported cargo are sourced from 15 provincial-level regions in China, including Zhejiang, Shanghai, Anhui, and Jiangsu. The most popular imported goods include red wine from Spain, auto parts from Germany, and crystal glasses from the Czech Republic.

A Madrid-Yiwu train, carrying mostly red wine, prepares to leave Madrid for Yiwu on May 18, 2015. [Photo/Qian Xusheng and Wang Jianming]

An exhibition booth showcases goods that were transported via the Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe freight train service at the Yiwu Imported Commodities Fair on June 6, 2015. [Photo/Qian Xusheng and Wang Jianming]

A container is loaded onto a Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe freight train at a railway station in Yiwu on Nov 2, 2018. [Photo/Qian Xusheng and Wang Jianming]