Six years of resilient growth set a good example for cross-continental transportation under a shared future

A train pulls out from Manzhouli customs. Photo: Courtesy of Han Zongjiang

Editor's Note:

In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward the "Belt and Road Initiative" (BRI), aiming at building a new platform for international cooperation and creating new momentum for shared development. Since then, the BRI has opened a path for high-quality development and common prosperity for countries along the route, becoming a real global platform serving over half of the world's population.

While developing rapidly over the years, China has also made great contribution to the world connectivity under the initiative, helping to build a mega global transportation network covering sea, rail and road channels and integrating a number of countries into the global supply chain. 

The Global Times is publishing a series of stories, helping the world understand how the initiative facilitates connectivity and foster growth. One of the typical examples includes the opening of China-Europe freight train. The sixth anniversary of the opening of the train falls on June 20, and the Global Times conducted interviews with several train operators, traders and customs officials, who shared how they witnessed the development of freight transportation under BRI and its increasingly important and indispensable role for global economy.

This is the first in a series about a monumental decade for the BRI.

When Bao was designated by the government of Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang Province, to deliver the first shipment of goods via the cross- border freight train to Madrid in 2014, he was deeply worried as a trader since hardly anyone would believe that a freight train with a mileage of up to 13,000 kilometers across the Eurasian continent could work.

Now, the train dispatched from Yiwu to major cities in Europe has become the pillar in cross-border transportation, with the numbers of trains dispatched last year reaching 1,277, and is expected to reach up to 1,600 this year, a historic high, compared with just one train in 2014.

While the launch periods of the trains were different from place to place, the official naming of the China-Europe freight train as a national brand was made by China Railway in June 2016, which was also the most fruitful year for China-Europe freight trains. From that year on, its role as a China-EU trade messenger was preliminarily established.

It was also in 2016 when the average numbers of trains dispatched from Yiwu to Europe was upped to two trains per week instead of one train per month, while the category and value of cargo delivered via the trains was diversified, industry insiders said.

From 2016 to 2021, the annual number of China-Europe freight trains increased from 1,702 to 15,183, with an average annual growth rate of 55 percent.

Moreover, the types of cargo delivered via the trains expanded from mobile phones to more than 50,000 kinds of goods including vehicles and bulk commodities like grain and wood, mostly value-added goods.

In the face of the severe impact of the pandemic, the China-Europe freight train has bucked the trend and kept growing, with 78 operating lines reaching 180 cities in 23 European countries.