Ten years ago, fewer than five trains a day rolled out of China toward Europe. Today, more than 55 depart every 24 hours. The Iron Silk Road has quietly redrawn the trade map of the entire Eurasian continent.
From Barren Platforms to Tens of Thousands of Trains
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In June 2016, the China-Europe Railway Express unified its brand and officially launched. The first batch of trains departed simultaneously from eight cities — Chongqing, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, and Yiwu among them. That year, a grand total of 1,702 trains hit the rails, averaging fewer than five a day.
Ten years on, the picture is completely different. According to data released by the China State Railway Group on June 19, annual traffic reached 20,022 trains in 2025 — a 10.8-fold increase over a decade, at an average annual growth rate of 31.5%.
By June 10, 2026, the Express had already surpassed 10,000 trains and one million TEUs for the year-to-date period, setting a new historical high for the same period.
On June 22, the whistle sounded at Chongqing's Tuanjiecun Central Station. Train X8013 of the China-Europe Railway Express (Chengdu-Chongqing) — fully loaded with 182 "Made in Chongqing" vehicles — set off for Russia's Vorsino station. The first time an entire train used the new 40-foot, 35-ton general-purpose car containers, sized precisely to fit the railway clearance limits of major countries along the route, enabling seamless integration with rail, road, and maritime transport.
"Made in Chongqing" Cars Reach Europe in Two Weeks
This railway line means far more to China's manufacturing sector than a logistics channel. For Chongqing's auto exporters, the old route forced goods down the Yangtze River to eastern coastal ports — a lengthy and costly detour. The Express cuts that journey to an average of two weeks, delivering cargo straight to the European hinterland.
Yu Qinghua, general manager of overseas marketing for Deepal — the new-energy vehicle brand under Changan Automobile — revealed that the Express provides priority marshaling, shipping, and guaranteed space for new-energy vehicles. Thanks to those advantages, Deepal's overseas orders hit 13,500 units in the first quarter of this year, up 85.4% year-on-year.
The variety of freight has changed beyond recognition. When the service launched in 2016, it primarily carried mobile phones and computers. Today, freight categories have expanded to 53 sectors and over 50,000 types of goods — clothing, footwear, automobile parts, grain, wine, coffee beans, and timber among them.
Total cargo value reached US$67.7 billion (approximately HK$527 billion) in 2025. The Express has become the fast track for "Made in China" products going overseas, and for European agricultural products and chemical raw materials entering China.
Three Maritime Crises, Three Times Stepping Up
Three separate maritime crises have exposed the true strategic value of this steel corridor. In 2021, the Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal, briefly paralyzing global shipping and triggering a surge of Express orders. When the Red Sea crisis erupted in 2023, sustained Houthi attacks on commercial vessels pushed European buyers toward land transport.
Then in 2026, Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz during the US-Iran war placed renewed pressure on global energy shipping. Each time, the Express's "all-weather, blockade-proof" characteristics drove the international shipping industry to a deeper recognition of its value as a strategic backup.
Make no mistake: this is no coincidence. It is the result of Beijing's systematic planning over two decades.
A Network Spreading Across Eurasia
Today, 129 cities in China have opened routes for the China-Europe Railway Express, reaching 236 cities in 26 European countries. At the Khorgos railway port in Xinjiang, annual train traffic to Europe and Central Asia skyrocketed from fewer than 400 in 2016 to 9,882 in 2025.
After Urumqi Customs and State Railway jointly implemented the "smart railway port plus local rapid customs clearance" reform, port clearance time for imported goods dropped from two to three days to under 16 hours — a 70% reduction. Processing time for exported goods shrank from six hours to just one hour, an 80% decrease.
Routes connecting Central Asia are expanding, too. In Zhengzhou, a train loaded with 1,700 tons of textiles recently departed for Hairatan, Afghanistan. In Xi'an, the first dedicated rapeseed oil train from Krasnoyarsk arrived on May 2. Sixty-two containers carrying over 1,500 tons of Russian rapeseed oil completed the cross-border direct run in 11 days. Unloading and warehousing took just 1.5 hours — nearly half the time required under traditional models.
Behind every single train lies a restructuring of the entire logistics order across the Eurasian continent. Whoever controls the land routes holds the leverage in the trade contests of the next era.
Mao Paishou
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