The inaugural voyage along the "Polar Silk Road" shipping route from China to Europe was completed on Monday as the container ship Istanbul Bridge reached the UK, just 20 days after departing from east China.
Loaded with more than 1,000 standard containers or Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU), the Istanbul Bridge departed from the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port in the eastern province of Zhejiang on September 23 and successfully arrived at Britain's largest container port of Felixstowe on Monday evening local time via the Arctic route.
This marks the successful launch of the world's first China-Europe Arctic container express route.
Next, the cargo ship will continue on to dock in the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland.
The new route will connect major Chinese ports, including Qingdao, Dalian, Shanghai and Ningbo, with key European ports such as Felixstowe in Britain, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Hamburg in Germany, and Gdansk in Poland.
It is the fastest container shipping route between major ports in China and Europe, significantly shortening the journey and transportation time by crossing the Arctic Ocean. Taking just 20 days to complete, it is significantly faster than the China-Europe freight train (about 25 days), the Suez Canal route (about 40 days), and the Cape of Good Hope route (about 50 days).
According to Ningbo Customs, the cargo on this initial voyage is valued at 1.4 billion yuan (about 190 million U.S. dollars), including clothing, energy storage cabinets, and power batteries.
The route is also seen as a key achievement under the Belt and Road Initiative's "Polar Silk Road," poised to provide faster and lower-carbon logistics options for industries such as advanced manufacturing, cross-border e-commerce, and new energy.
First voyage on faster China-Europe Arctic shipping route reaches UK port
The 32nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting concluded in east China's Suzhou on Saturday, yielding fruitful results and laying significant groundwork for the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in November.
The trade ministers' meeting focused on "building an open and predictable regional and multilateral economic and trade order" and "fostering new engines of innovative and dynamic trade and investment cooperation."
Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao briefed the media on the meeting's outcomes at a press conference.
Wang said the meeting issued a joint statement titled the Suzhou Statement, and approved the latest edition of the APEC Roadmap for Innovative, Competitive and Resilient Services.
All parties agreed to advance policy innovation and reform in services trade, build an open and predictable investment environment, improve regional trade facilitation and supply chain resilience, strengthen standards coordination, and enhance intellectual property protection, Wang told the media.
He also said that substantial progress was made on a framework document for regional digital trade cooperation and the ministers emphasized promoting inclusive AI development, strengthening AI-related trade, and bridging the digital divide to ensure shared benefits from digital transformation.
The minister noted that the outcomes of the meeting demonstrated strong cooperation willingness, highlighted an innovation-oriented approach, and reflected inclusiveness and shared benefits. "The fact that Asia-Pacific economies can come together, uphold the original aspiration of promoting trade and investment liberalization and facilitation while supporting economic growth and prosperity, and engage in in-depth discussions on the important issue of 'where multilateral and regional economic and trade cooperation is headed,' fully demonstrates that open regionalism and true multilateralism enjoy broad support, and that mutual success and shared development serve the fundamental interests of all economies," Wang said.
2026 APEC trade ministers' meeting concludes with fruitful results
