Train from Chongqing marks European anniversary

On Friday morning, a memorial freight train on the China Railway Express departed from Chongqing bound for Duisburg, Germany, marking the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe express line.

The train, fully loaded with electronic products, mechanical parts and daily necessities, pulled out of Tuanjie Village Station in Chongqing and began its two-week journey.

On March 19, 2011, the first China-Europe freight train departed from Chongqing and arrived in Duisburg 16 days later.

The more than 11,000-kilometer link begins in Chongqing, crosses the border at Alashankou, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and into Kazakhstan. It then passes through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland before reaching Duisburg.

"Yuxinou (Chongqing) Logistics Co has become a significant carrier and a brand for the municipality to help the Belt and Road Initiative create an international inland logistics hub and an open inland city in western China," said Ba Chuanjiang, director of the municipal port and logistics office.

Even with the worldwide spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Yuxinou has maintained steady operations.

Over the past 10 years, nearly 8,000 freight train journeys have been made under Yuxinou. The transportation value ranks first in the country's China-Europe freight service in more than 60 cities.

In 2020, a total of 2,603 freight train journeys had been made and more than 220,000 standard containers had been transported via Yuxinou — respective growth of more that 70 percent and 65 percent year-on-year. The value of Yuxinou's transported goods amounted to 90 billion yuan ($13.8 billion), with a growth of 65 percent over the previous year.

In April last year, the first China Railway Express block train of international postal parcels departed Chongqing for Lithuania to help ease the transportation pressure during the COVID-19 pandemic, as most airlines had curtailed their international flights.

The practice charted a new way for international postal parcel distribution via Yunxinou during the pandemic. Last year, more than 20 million postal parcels were delivered.

Chongqing is at the intersection of the Belt and Road Initiative's trade routes and the Yangtze River Economic Zone.

Thanks to its comprehensive transportation system encompassing air, water and land, the city is one of the nine key logistics centers in the country.