Xinjiang's Alashankou port sees surge in China-Europe rail freight

The Alashankou Port in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region handled over 7,600 China-Europe (Central Asia) freight train trips in 2024, making it the busiest China-Europe train gateway in the country, according to local railway authorities.

At Alashankou station, a train loaded with goods departs every 70 minutes. The station, located at the Alashankou border hub, is the most active border exit point with a constant flow of daily freight bound for destinations across Central Asia and Europe.

With 17 rail tracks, this site moves over 200 types of Chinese-made goods, including new energy vehicles, electronics, and daily consumer products, into international markets.

During China's 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), China Railway Urumqi Group completed key infrastructure projects, such as the second line from Jinghe to Alashankou on the Lanzhou-Xinjiang railway. These upgrades, including new customs facilities like the container transfer yard, have significantly enhanced the station's operational capacity.

"We've built a comprehensive inspection yard with three standard-gauge lines and three broad-gauge lines, a total of six lines. That has clearly improved our efficiency," said Yan Huapeng, director of the container transfer yard, Alashankou Station.

Further boosting efficiency is the technological upgrade of customs facilities. At the newly launched Alashankou Railway integrated inspection yard, UAVs patrol train routes, and sealed corridor bridges automatically dock with trains for cargo scanning and inspection.

In 2021, 5,848 China-Europe freight trains passed through Alashankou. By 2024, that number surged to 7,684, a more than 30 percent increase from 2021.

"That was our old vehicle inspection room. It could only handle four trucks at a time. Now we've switched to a four-lane setup that can inspect eight trucks at once. By combining human inspection with smart systems, we've nearly cut customs processing time by half," said Gao Jian, deputy captain of the third patrol team, Alashankou Border Inspection Station.

The high efficiency at the Alashankou port has fueled local economic growth and industrial upgrading.

"In 2025, we're handling over 1,000 truckloads of parcels every month. Our destinations now include the UK, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. That's more than two million parcels per month," said Yang Haicheng, chairman of Alashankou Oushengtong International Air and Trucking Logistics.

"Over the past few years, many of our cross-border e-commerce routes have seen annual growth rates of 50 percent to even 100 percent," said Mo Shengjun, secretary general of Alashankou Import and Export Trade Chamber of Commerce.

Today, Alashankou is home to nearly 800 enterprises clustered around logistics, processing, and trade. In 2024, the total import and export trade volume of the Alashankou Comprehensive Bonded Zone exceeded 30 billion yuan (about 4.21 billion U.S. dollars), with annual cross-border e-commerce export parcels surpassing 27 million.

Over the past five years, Alashankou has rapidly developed into a critical gateway for China's western opening-up strategy, serving as a powerful hub for connecting the country's economy with global trade routes.

"Our freight volume grew from 22.188 million tons in 2021 to 28.927 million tons in 2024. More 'Made in China' goods are speeding through Alashankou toward global markets, while 'global bestsellers' are entering China faster to meet consumer demands," said Zhang Chengjun, deputy director of Alashankou Bonded Zone Administrative Committee.

Xinjiang's Alashankou port sees surge in China-Europe rail freight

More than 1,000 people gathered in Berlin over the weekend to protest against U.S. threats of military intervention in Venezuela and voice support for the Venezuelan government.

The demonstrations, held on Saturday and Sunday in the German capital, drew participants who condemned the U.S. sanctions on Venezuela and the naval deployments in the Caribbean.

Protesters said that the United States, under the pretext of counter-narcotics, deployed several warships in the Caribbean near Venezuela, and such a military threat was aimed at interfering in Venezuela's internal affairs.

"The military threat brings a great danger. The United States and Western countries, including Europe, are targeting at Latin American countries that refuse to yield to U.S. pressure and stick to pursue independent policies. They are trying to interfere in Latin American politics and install governments that are obedient to them," said Diedrich Franck, organizer of the protest.

Some protesters said the United States' open threat of ground operations to topple the Maduro government was aimed at seizing Venezuela's oil resources.

"The United States has long been treating Latin America as its backyard to exploit its raw materials and also the Latin American people. Venezuela is the country with the largest oil reserves in the world. There are very obvious interests for the United States to seize its resources and at the same time control the entire Latin American continent. Therefore any leftist, anti-imperialist government in Latin America is seen as a problem by the United States," said Max, a German scholar of modern history.

Washington has deployed around a dozen warships and 15,000 troops to the Caribbean Sea, which shares a significant amount of coastline with Venezuela. U.S. forces have carried out at least 21 known strikes since Sept. 2 on boats suspected of carrying drugs in the Caribbean and East Pacific, killing at least 83 people.

Protesters gather in Berlin against U.S. intervention in Venezuela