First train of "Zheng He" international sea-road-rail shipping departs from Yunnan

The first freight train of China's newly launched "Zheng He" Sea-Road-Rail international service departed from Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province on Friday, loaded with 26 containers of local specialty products.

After arriving in Vientiane, Laos via the China-Laos Railway, the new multimodal service will transport goods bound for Thailand, Singapore and Bangladesh via three separate routes.

The launch of the service marks the creation of the first route from Kunming to Chattogram, Bangladesh. The route will bypass the Strait of Malacca, cutting the transport distance by one-third and the travel time by half to just 18 days.

Moreover, the total integration of sea, road and rail into a single service vastly simplifies shipping procedures, with no unpacking or transshipment during the entire journey, providing a faster and more cost-effective pathway for Chinese goods to reach overseas markets.

The multimodal service is named after Chinese explorer Zheng He (1371-1433), who, over an extraordinary span of 28 years, embarked on seven epic voyages and commanded a fleet that reached distant shores as far as Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and even East Africa.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil issued a statement on Saturday, saying that the security alert released by the U.S. Department of State regarding Venezuela is based on false claims that do not exist and is intended to create a perception of risk that is not real.

According to the statement posted on Gil's official X account, Venezuela is currently in a state of absolute calm, peace and stability.

All residential areas, transportation routes, checkpoints and security facilities in the country are functioning normally, and all armed forces nationwide are under the government's control.

The statement came after the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Consular Affairs on Saturday warned that as international flights have resumed, U.S. citizens in Venezuela "should leave the country immediately."