Railway departments in China and Kazakhstan have collaborated to improve China-Europe freight train services, aiming to build it as a pivotal trade route between Europe and Asia, bolstered by the growing synergy between China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Kazakhstan's "Bright Road" economic policy in recent years.
Kazakhstan is one of the first countries to support the BRI and also a key transit country for the China-Europe freight train route. Since this year, China and Kazakhstan's railway departments have initiated regular meetings at different levels to strengthen daily online and offline communication and collaboration. They exchange daily reports on train numbers and types to ensure the smooth operation of the trains.
Currently, the railway department of Xinjiang, a provincial-level region in northwest China with the largest number of land ports in the country, is using a digital rail program and collaborating with customs and border inspection departments to streamline the transshipment of China-Europe freight trains and facilitate customs clearance, which enhances railway transport services.
"Our station reserves tracks in advance to ensure uninterrupted train operations. We also make coordinated efforts with customs and other departments to streamline procedures like inspections and customs clearance. This has accelerated outbound train turnover and shortened outbound customs clearance to less than five hours while speeding up the inbound cargo transfer process by four hours," said Yang Rui, deputy director of production safety command center at the Alashankou station, a crucial hub connecting China with Central Asia and Europe.
In recent years, the number of China-Europe freight train services has steadily risen. These trains now reach 223 cities in 25 European countries, linking over 100 cities across 11 Asian countries. This extensive network has made the China-Europe freight train a crucial trade route bridging Asia and Europe.
China, Kazakhstan double down on Eurasia unimpeded cargo passage
China, Kazakhstan double down on Eurasia unimpeded cargo passage
For more than 1,000 years, Jingdezhen, the "porcelain capital" in east China's Jiangxi Province, has shaped how the world understands porcelain, with even discarded shards preserving a living tradition.
Weng Yanjun, president of the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Institute, reflected on the scale and challenge behind Jingdezhen's historic creations.
"When I look at this gigantic dragon jar, I couldn't help going back to 600 years ago, when the emperor had this order to create something bigger than ever before. The failure rate of the dragon jar is so high. It could be nine out of 10. Even making failure products like this takes courage, takes techniques and takes commitment," said Weng.
Those failed attempts, once discarded, now preserve the evidence of how Jingdezhen pursued perfection.
For more than 1,000 years, Jingdezhen's porcelain industry has endured through the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties (960-1911). What has survived is not only its porcelain, but also a living heritage of raw materials, workshops, kilns and specialized craftsmanship.
Those firings produced masterpieces as well as failures, with the discarded pieces forming another kind of archive.
At the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Institute, Weng told archaeology students that fragmented specimens sometimes provide more information than complete artifacts.
Weng leads the development of the world's first Ancient Ceramics Gene Bank, which extracts and catalogs the defining characteristics of each ceramic shard.
"For our institute alone, we have excavated more than 20 million pieces of shards for the past over 1,200 years. Among those shards, we do sorting, we do restoration, and we do scientific tests. And then we find, wow, a small shard can tell us much more information than even a whole piece," said Weng.
Using a standardized sample library and unified data framework, the project records each piece's shape, decoration, body material, glaze, color, firing marks and inscriptions, creating a valuable resource for authentication and research around the world.
"The whole city is a wonderful lab and space range makes Jingdezhen uniquely a wonderful example of how the handicraft ancient industry with porcelain as the focus survived even to today," Weng added.
Jingdezhen once helped establish benchmarks for how porcelain was made. Now, the gene bank is turning fragments into a language that can be read beyond the city. For French artist and researcher Yann Colleu, learning to read that language has also changed the way he creates.
"Since my childhood, my parents had these teapots, tea sets, plates and cups. I was very curious about the pattern, like the meaning, what was behind it? Actually when I discovered in Jingdezhen that it was a bat, because of 'fu' and 'fu' is fortune, but also you have the 'wufu,' like the five blessings. I was like a child with stars in the eyes, discovering the world for the first time," said Colleu, PhD candidate at Jingdezhen Ceramic University.
What once seemed abstract became part of Yann's own visual language. In his work, traditional Jingdezhen motifs and production scenes are reimagined through a contemporary, cross-cultural lens.
"Jingdezhen is a timeless city. The past, the present and even the future are tied together. This is one of illustration of 72 traditional steps developing during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The difference is, instead of using Chinese characters, I use foreigners. I want to use the past to talk about the present and even the future with Jingdezhen," said Colleu.
The Jingdezhen Handicraft Porcelain Industry Sites were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on Saturday. The inscription recognizes not just a single kiln or masterpiece, but an entire production system, from its archaeological remains and traditional craftsmanship to its industrial knowledge and global influence.
Porcelain shards preserve Jingdezhen’s timeless legacy
