A China-Europe freight train, loaded with goods for cross-border e-commerce business departed on Wednesday from Guangzhou, capital city of south China's Guangdong Province, marking the launch of the city's first dedicated China-Europe e-commerce express line.
The goods carried by the train include daily necessities produced in multiple cities of east China's Guangdong Province, such as clothing from Guangzhou, small home appliances from Foshan, and kitchenware from Zhongshan.
The train is set to exit China via Xinjiang's Horgos in the northwest of the country and arrive in Italy in 13 days.
This cargo route features advantages including short transit time and low costs, meeting the transportation needs of cross-border e-commerce business for small but frequent shipments and tight delivery schedules.
"Previously, our cross-border e-commerce goods were mainly transported to Europe via sea or air freight. Sea freight took over 30 days, while air freight was relatively expensive. Now, with the new China-Europe e-commerce freight train service, cross-border goods can reach Europe in just 13 days -- more than twice as fast as sea transport, and at only one-fifth of the cost of air freight," said Zhang Junmei, an executive of a logistics company.
Following the launch of this route, about 40 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cross-border e-commerce goods are expected to be exported weekly.
China adds another China-Europe freight train route for e-commerce goods
Offshore wind power is helping south China's Guangdong Province build an ever-wider green energy industry, a transformation that is reshaping the province's own economy while supporting the clean energy ambitions of the wider Asia-Pacific.
Guangdong has been expanding its offshore wind capacity at a rapid pace, with installed capacity exceeding 13 gigawatts by the end of 2025, the largest total of any Chinese province.
Much of that growth is concentrated in Yangjiang, a coastal city that has grown into one of the country's major offshore wind power hubs, where a single project counts 233 turbines, as one worker at a local wind farm noted.
The city is also home to China's only national offshore wind turbine testing platform, the China General Certification (CGC) Guangdong Wind Power Test Center, which was established in 2018 and ranks among the world's largest facilities for full-scale blade testing, assessing the quality and reliability of the equipment used across the industry.
"The longest blade we have tested so far is 147 meters. China is taking the lead in most large blade tests at present. China is participating in formulating new testing methods and standards," said Lin Xianshen, deputy director of laboratory of CGC Guangdong Wind Power Test Center Limited.
For the companies operating the turbines off its coast, Yangjiang's rise has been written into a steady multiplication of projects dotting the sea.
"By the end of 2025, Yangjiang's total installed capacity reached 24 million kilowatts. It is the prefecture-level city with the largest installed wind power capacity in Guangdong Province," said Li Xiang, chairperson of Guangdong Huadian Fuxin Yangjiang Offshore Wind Power Company.
Along Guangdong's coastline, wind farms, equipment makers, component suppliers and testing facilities are increasingly coming together, weaving an integrated supply chain for green energy.
Chinese manufacturers now account for more than two-thirds of global wind turbine production, and by the end of 2024, half of the country's cumulative wind turbine exports had gone to the Asia-Pacific region.
As demand for green electricity grows across Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies, a service center in Shenzhen City in Guangdong is helping export-oriented companies obtain internationally recognized green electricity certification.
The center is China's first government-authorized service center for green electricity and green certificates, designed to connect Chinese businesses with new energy markets across the wider region.
"Export-oriented businesses need to engage in international supply chain and industrial chain cooperation. They make up 40 percent of the customer base," said Tan Kun, deputy general manager of the marketing and customer service of Shenzhen Power Supply Bureau under China Southern Power Grid.
From offshore wind farms and advanced manufacturing to green electricity services, Guangdong's expanding green industry cluster is lending its weight to a cleaner industrial future in the Asia-Pacific.
South China’s offshore wind industry powers Asia-Pacific's green future
