China-Europe freight train full of development opportunities: spokesman

The China-Europe freight train is a "golden train" full of development opportunities, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday. Lin made the remarks as the 10,000th China-Europe freight train this year departed from Wuhan City in central China's Hubei Province on July 10, 19 days ahead of the 10,000th train last year.

"A total of 10,000 China-Europe freight train trips have been made this year, delivering over one million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers of goods, up 11 percent year on year. The number of freight train trips in three major routes in the western, middle and eastern corridors of the train service rose 13 percent, 20 percent and 5 percent over the previous year, respectively. The number of train trips running on the southern corridor increased 15 times, injecting new impetus to guarantee the stability of production and supply chains and promote economic and trade exchanges between China and Europe," said Lin.

"The China-Europe freight train is a 'steel camel caravan' crossing mountains and seas and also a 'golden train' full of development opportunities. Now the train service has reached 224 cities in 25 European countries and over 100 cities in 11 Asian countries, with a large number of enterprises engaged in international trade, supply chain service, and other areas taking roots in regions along the routes. The train service has also become an iconic brand in the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative with its advantages in speedy, high-quality, safe and stable transportation," he said.

"At present, the train service delivers more than 50,000 varieties of goods in 53 categories. The frequency of set-scheduled China-Europe freight train services has increased to 17 trains a week, which not only allows more high-quality goods from China to go out of the country faster at lower transport costs, but also opens up new trade channels for merchants from all over the world to enter the Chinese market," he also said.

China-Europe freight train full of development opportunities: spokesman

China-Europe freight train full of development opportunities: spokesman

China-Europe freight train full of development opportunities: spokesman

Two roads leading to Medog County, nestled deep within the Himalayas of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, have fulfilled the long-held aspirations of its local community.

At a relatively low average elevation of 1,200 meters, Medog in the city of Nyingchi, was once the last county in China without permanent road access. The place has much more moisture in its air than other place in the region, fostering year-round frost, rain, snow and heavy fog.

Facing the tough geography and climate, China's outstanding engineers, however, build roads through mountains and bridges over rivers. They also bored a 3-kilometer-long tunnel facing the magnificent, snow-capped Galongla Mountain, and set up long sections of shed tunnels to shelter their road from frequent avalanches.

The Medog Highway, the first highway leading to Medog with a total length of 117 kilometers, opened to traffic in October 2013 after more than 50 years of sincere efforts, connecting the county with Zhamog Township of Bomi County in Nyingchi.

According to statistics, since its opening, the highway has endured 652 continuous heavy rainfalls, 265 heavy snowfalls, 258 slope and subgrade collapses, 394 mudslides and 71 avalanches. Therefore, efforts to upgrade the highway have never stopped over the past decade.

In October 2022, construction of a second highway was completed. The second passageway to Medog is a 67.22-km highway connecting Pad Township in the city of Nyingchi and Medog County.

After the new highway was opened to traffic, the length of the road connecting the city proper of Nyingchi and Medog County was shortened to 180 kilometers from 346 kilometers, cutting travel time to four hours, and it only takes three hours to drive to Nyingchi Mainling Airport from Medog.

New roads leading to Medog realize Xizang's long-held dreams