A China-Europe freight train goes through the China-Mongolia border gate in Erenhot on Sept. 3, 2020. [Photo by Ji Enquan/China State Railway Group Co., Ltd]

President Xi Jinping proposed the joint construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), during his visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia in the fall of 2013. China Railway has since made efforts to launch the China-Europe freight train to support the BRI cooperation. Many countries have involved in this widely welcomed international project in the past nine years.

China-Europe freight train has become a widely spread power engine and an influential international logistic brand

Thanks to the joint efforts of countries along the line, China-Europe freight train has built a new platform for economic and trade cooperation and an effective international logistic supply chain, which help bring countries along the line closer to each other. It has opened a new era of Asia-Europe cooperation and has become a widely spread power engine and an influential international logistic brand.

It is a new land transport passageway between Asia and Europe. The railway has helped make perfect the Asia- Europe land transport network and expand international combined transport passageways. A spatial pattern of "multi-terminal, land and sea combined transport" has been established and a new era of international logistic and transport cooperation opened. By the end of July 2022, the Asia-Europe land transport network has opened 82 transport lines reaching 196 cities in 24 European countries. Covering entire Europe, the system runs as an international transport artery between Asia and Europe that facilitates the connectivity between policies, infrastructures, trade, finance, and people-to-people communication between countries along the line and promotes the connectivity between the two continents.