From one train a month to six a day, from clothing to electric vehicles, costs down by 40 percent

Let’s try to understand this in a CCTV+ report.

According to data from China State Railway Group, China-Europe freight trains have made a total of 130,000 trips, transporting goods worth over 520 billion US dollars.

The 130,000th trip was marked on Saturday by the departure of a freight train from Zhengzhou, capital of central China’s Henan province, to Hamburg, Germany. The train, loaded with goods including monitor stands, laminate flooring and furniture worth about 19 million yuan (approximately 2.8 million US dollars), departed from Putian Station. It will head west via the Lanzhou-Lianyungang and Lanzhou-Xinjiang railways, leave China through the Alataw Pass, and is expected to arrive in Hamburg in about 16 days. This is also the 333rd China-Europe freight train to depart from Zhengzhou this year.

Gu Fengshou, a driver at the Zhengzhou locomotive depot of China Railway Zhengzhou Group Co., Ltd., said: “When the China-Europe Railway Express first started operations, we had only eight reserve drivers per day and sent only one train a month. Now we launch up to six trains a day. We have assigned 16 shunting drivers to meet the increased transport demand.”

Despite the growth in freight volume, transport costs on the China-Europe Railway Express, both within China and beyond, have fallen by more than 40 percent compared to the start of operations. The trains now carry goods in 53 different categories, covering more than 50,000 types of products.

Shipments from China have been upgraded: instead of low-value goods such as clothing, shoes and small items, trains now carry high-value goods such as electric vehicles, machinery and equipment, and electronics. On return routes, European timber, pulp, specialized agricultural products and daily necessities are delivered to the Chinese market.

In the China-Europe Railway Express import supermarkets in Zhengzhou, more than 3,000 types of European goods are on display, including French wine, Belgian chocolate and German kitchenware. Ruan Ying, a store manager on Jingguang Road, says: “Recently we updated our stock with more than 200 new items in popular categories — cosmetics, household chemicals, beverages and food. German beer, French cosmetics and British household chemicals have become everyday commodities.”

Behind the growing freight volume lie closer trade ties and reliable cargo security. Wang Yanbo, head of the logistics department of China State Railway Group, explains: “We have developed and implemented electronic seals that allow cargo to be tracked along the entire route and provide alerts for security breaches. We have also innovatively applied specialized equipment such as temperature-controlled refrigerated containers, big bags for 40-foot containers and car containers. This has enhanced our capacity to transport special goods and effectively expanded the range of products carried.”

Currently, China-Europe Railway Express services have been launched in 129 Chinese cities, covering 235 cities in 26 European countries and more than 100 cities in 11 Asian countries — almost the entire Eurasian continent.

The answer to the question “what lies behind the growth?” is not just in the numbers. Behind it lies logistics that have become smarter, an assortment that has become more sophisticated, and cooperation that has become deeper. The railway no longer simply connects points on a map. It has changed the very formula of distance: travel time — 16 days, but the difference in development — years.