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
