First Observation: Moment | Ten years, for the benefit of the people of all countries along the way
Ten years apart, the lens of Xinhua News Agency reporters recorded two precious moments -
Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yue Yuewei
On April 22, 2024, General Secretary Xi Jinping came to Chongqing International Logistics Hub Park to learn about the local acceleration of the construction of a new land-sea corridor in the western region. In front of a China-Europe train full of goods, General Secretary Xi Jinping stopped to inspect.
Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Rao Aimin
March 29, 2014, Port of Duisburg, Germany. The end point of the "Yuxinou" international railway intermodal transport channel. Chinese President Xi Jinping is here. After three gongs, the train from Chongqing, China, slowly entered with a load of goods.
I have inspected and asked many times in the past ten years, why is General Secretary Xi Jinping so concerned about this railway?
Ten years ago, General Secretary Xi Jinping expressed his ardent expectations at the Port of Duisburg.
Starting from Chongqing, passing through Xi'an, Lanzhou and Urumqi, crossing the Northern Xinjiang Railway to the west, arriving at the border port of Alashankou, entering Kazakhstan, and then passing through Russia, Belarus, Poland, and ending in Duisburg, Germany, the China-Europe Express has shortened the railway freight time between the hinterland of Chinese mainland and Europe from more than 40 days to more than 10 days.
On January 4, 2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping came to Chongqing Guoyuan Port to inspect and listen to the introduction of the construction of the shipping center in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, railway, highway and waterway intermodal transport. When he heard that the countries along the "Yuxinou" international railway had achieved a customs declaration and inspection and the release of the whole line, he praised it as "very good".
On March 7, a China-Europe train loaded with machinery and equipment, vehicles and parts drove out of the central station of Tuanjie Village in Chongqing (drone photo). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Huang Wei
In 2016, China Railway officially launched the unified brand of China-Europe trains, named the trains, and renamed "Yuxinou" as China-Europe trains (Chongqing). Today, with the central station of Tuanjie Village as the main departure point, the China-Europe Express (Chengdu-Chongqing) has more than 50 stable operating lines, radiating 110 cities in nearly 40 countries and regions.
On April 22, General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected the Chongqing International Logistics Hub Park. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Ye
In the past ten years, General Secretary Xi Jinping has continued to pay attention to the operation of the China-Europe Railway Express, and has repeatedly emphasized his support for the development of the China-Europe Railway Express, demonstrating his confidence and determination to promote the development of the China-Europe Railway Express in the direction of higher quality, better efficiency and safer, promote global economic development, enhance the well-being of people of all countries, and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
Ten years of rapid development, how big is the comparison between the past and the present?
Today's Chongqing Tuanjie Village Central Station, the containers printed with the words "China-Europe Express" are piled up, the orange gantry crane takes off and lands non-stop, and the transfer trucks shuttle back and forth, with more than 600 employees and stevedores, and the annual handling volume reaches 700,000 standard containers.
On March 7, in the customs supervision area of the central station of Tuanjiecun in Chongqing, the staff loaded the goods shipped by the China-Europe train into trucks and transported them to the marshalling station for marshalling after customs clearance (drone photo). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Huang Wei
Tuanjie Village Central Station has become a well-known hub from an obscure small station, the delivery manifest has changed from "single variety" to "complete categories", the loading situation has changed from "there is no return" to "full load", and the number of lines has developed from "connecting the dots into a line" to "weaving a network of threads".
The categories of goods shipped from China to Europe have expanded to 53 categories and more than 50,000 commodities such as automobiles and machinery and equipment, and the categories of goods shipped from Europe to China have gradually expanded to a variety of commodities such as mechanical and electrical products, food, medical equipment, etc., with a cumulative value of more than 340 billion US dollars.
Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Yiwu, Xi'an...... More and more cities have opened China-Europe trains. As of the end of March 2024, more than 87,000 China-Europe freight trains have been operated, reaching 222 cities in 25 European countries.
On September 15, 2023, the China-Europe Express International Cooperation Forum opened in Jiangsu, and General Secretary Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter. The congratulatory letter mentioned that since the opening of the China-Europe Railway Express, it has maintained safe, stable and smooth operation, created a new pattern of Asia-Europe international transportation, built a new platform for economic and trade cooperation along the route, effectively guaranteed the stability of the international industrial chain and supply chain, and injected new impetus into the development of the world economy.
Ten years of rapid development, showing a firm stance of openness, cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win results.
The China-Europe Express is not only a train, but also represents an open and cooperative mindset.
The Chongqing International Logistics Hub Park, which the general secretary visited during his visit, is not only the starting station of the China-Europe train, but also the starting station of the rail-sea intermodal train of the new western land-sea corridor, and an important hub for the high-level opening up of the southwest region of the mainland. The park has built a modern logistics operation system of "channel + hub + network", with 62 routes of international trains running from the new western land-sea corridor, China-Europe trains, Chongqing-Manchuria-Russia, and Chongqing-Ningbo, radiating 503 ports in 112 countries.
Across the mountains and seas, against the wind. The "steel camel caravans" have opened up new space for the western region to open up to the outside world and drawn a beautiful picture for the benefit of the people of all countries along the way.