Xinjiang is at the core of the ancient Silk Road. Zhang Qian traveled to the Western Regions and started a road of commerce and trade of mutual benefit and win-win for thousands of years. Urumqi, located in the geographic center of Asia, used to be an important trading center on the Silk Road with the sound of camel bells and frequent merchants. It is also the largest city in the world farthest from the ocean. It used to be a fantasy to build an international port here. At the end of 2015, the Urumqi International Dry Port Area came into being based on the galloping China-Europe freight train.

Today, this modern city at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains, taking advantage of the favorable opportunity of the construction of the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt, the Urumqi International Land Port Area has moved the goods from the sea to the doorstep, and Xinjiang has become the forefront of the Belt and Road opening to the west.

The planned construction area of the Urumqi International Land Port Area is 67 square kilometers. It is located in the Urumqi Economic and Technological Development Zone. It is located in the economic belt on the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains with the most development strength in Xinjiang. A marshalling yard is the closest railway hub to Central Asia, West Asia and Europe in the westward passage of China. Adjacent to the high-speed railway station and the international airport, Lianhuo Expressway, Wuchang Expressway and Lanxin Railway pass through the area, forming a three-dimensional comprehensive transportation system, connecting east and west, and connecting Europe and Asia.

The general secretary is always concerned

During his inspection tour in Xinjiang in 2014, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: Xinjiang has an irreplaceable position and role in the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt. It is necessary to seize this historical opportunity and integrate its regional opening-up strategy into the national Silk Road economy. Go to the overall layout with construction and opening to the west. The general secretary said: If the Silk Road Economic Belt is built, Xinjiang may become a prosperous center. Don't say anything else, Urumqi is now the largest city with a radius of 1,500 kilometers. What will it be like by then?

In 2019, the first batch of 23 national logistics hub construction lists were released, and Urumqi, Xinjiang, a dry port-type national logistics hub was among them. The national logistics hub covers a total of 6 types including dry port type, airport type, port type, production service type, business service type, and land border port type. Among the 70 national logistics hubs that have been deployed and constructed in China, 20 are of the dry port type, which is one of the larger types.

In November 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping made an important conclusion when attending the third Belt and Road construction symposium: the joint construction of the Belt and Road still faces important opportunities. To promote the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative, Xinjiang is both a bridgehead and a core area.

On July 12, 2022, in the Urumqi International Dry Port Area, on July 12, 2022, General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected Xinjiang and came to the Urumqi International Dry Port Area. On-site operations at Alashankou Port and Horgos Port, and cordially communicated with the staff and on-site clerks.

General Secretary Xi Jinping said that the Belt and Road Initiative has achieved fruitful results over the years. With the deepening of the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, Xinjiang is no longer a remote area, but a core area and a hub area. What you have done is historically significant and has achieved good results. With persistent efforts, the future is bright. At that time, this remark made the cadres and masses present excited.

Interconnection of China-Europe Railway Express

Urumqi has now become an important window for China to expand its opening to the west and carry out economic and cultural exchanges with foreign countries. Driven by the China Railway Express, the construction of "four stations, four parks, and four centers" in Urumqi Land Port Area has been greatly supported. Now almost every day, there are China-Europe trains departing from here, bound for Europe and Central Asian countries.

In order to help the high-quality development of China-Europe freight trains in the Urumqi International Dry Port Area, the Xinjiang railway department focuses on ensuring the smooth transportation of China-Europe freight trains, increases investment in transport capacity, optimizes the transportation organization of China-Europe freight trains, and implements one-stop service for centralized freight business. The "consolidation and consolidation" business model of China-Europe freight trains has attracted more and more cross-border enterprise projects to set up business here, accelerating industrial agglomeration and landing. It has also actively launched the fruit cold chain shuttle bus in the new land-sea channel, the China-Europe cross-border shuttle bus for high-end electronic products, and the test train for the combination of agricultural and sideline products cold chain and coal.

In the joint construction of the Belt and Road, the ever-running China-Europe freight trains continue to open up new routes and create new channels, and constantly promote the integration of Xinjiang's opening-up strategy into the national Silk Road Economic Belt construction and the overall layout of opening to the west. On the basis of building the port area into a new core hub, the increasingly dense railway network will penetrate into the Eurasian Continental Bridge. Injecting new impetus into the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, it also provides unprecedented new opportunities for Xinjiang to open up to the outside world.

Liu Shaohua, director of the Development Promotion Office of Urumqi International Dry Port Area, said: The assembly center is not isolated but should be open. Only by integrating into Europe and the eastern coastal ports can this center develop and grow.

To the west, Urumqi International Dry Port Area has established strategic cooperative relations with the German port of Duisburg, the Polish National Railway Freight Company, and the Luxembourg National Multimodal Transport Company. They have in-depth cooperation in mutual station construction and line development.

To the east, the Urumqi International Dry Port Area has signed contracts with Tianjin Port, Suzhou, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and will open Guangxinou, Baoxinou and Jinxinou, thus connecting the Urumqi International Dry Port Area and the most developed East China in the east. , North China and South China are integrated economically and form a linkage relationship in industry.

In the first half of 2022, 6,195 China-Europe (Central Asia) trains will pass through Alashankou Station and Horgos Station of China Railway Urumqi Bureau Group Co., Ltd., which exceeds the number of double-port trains on Xinjiang Railway in the same period of 2021, and refreshes the China-Europe trains again. The record of passing through the Xinjiang railway port.

China Railway Urumqi Bureau Group Co., Ltd. implements "priority in handling, priority in ticketing, priority in reloading, priority in grouping, and priority in departure", and vigorously implements port capacity expansion and transformation. . At the same time, strengthen coordination and cooperation with customs, border inspection and other departments, and promote the steady improvement of the quality of China-Europe trains by promoting China-Kazakhstan credit handover and paperless customs transfer. played a positive role.

fruitful

"The well-known agricultural and sideline products such as Xinjiang cantaloupe, grapes and fragrant pears are assembled from various states to the multimodal transportation center, loaded into containers, and then transported by truck to the Urumqi assembly center of the China-Europe Railway Express, and finally delivered by the China-Europe Railway Express. , to various countries along the route." Xu Jie, a staff member of Xinjiang International Land Port Group Co., Ltd. introduced.

Xu Jie said: Urumqi International Inland Port adopts the logistics organization mode of consolidation and consolidation, which allows the train to change from "passing" to "assembly" in Urumqi, which greatly improves the overall cargo carrying capacity. The dry port also adopts the operation mode of "collecting goods, building parks, and gathering industries" to transform the channel economy into a hub economy and drive the formation of an economic circle that can "take root".

In recent years, nearly 80% of the steel camels flying along China's Wanli Railway Line have sailed to foreign destinations via the Urumqi International Dry Port Area, connecting Xinjiang, Central Asia and Europe on the trade Silk Road.

In 2019, the Urumqi International Dry Port Area was identified as one of the 23 logistics hubs in the country, and one of the first five demonstration projects of the China-Europe freight train assembly center in the country.

As of the end of June 2022, more than 5,900 China-Europe trains have been operated in the international dry port area. The goods carried have expanded from the initial daily necessities and clothing products to more than 200 categories such as machinery and equipment, plumbing and building materials, with 21 train lines, reaching 19 countries and regions and 26 cities in Europe and Asia.

On the one hand, the Urumqi International Dry Port Area connects Xinjiang, Central Asia, and the European Trade Silk Road through the medium of the China-Europe Class Route. On the other hand, it activates the logistics engine to accelerate industrial agglomeration and implementation, and inject new impetus into the construction of the Belt and Road.

Products such as steel, ketchup, and PVC materials go out, and products such as mineral products, edible oil, and wheat keep coming in. Since 2022, the international dry port area has also opened the Xinjiang Turpan-Chongqing-Thailand Hamimelon Cold Chain Caban and Chongqing-Xinjiang-Germany high-end electronic products China-Europe cross-border shuttle bus.

Since the construction of Urumqi International Dry Port Area started in 2015, the total social investment of more than 30 billion yuan has been completed. By the end of June 2022, a total of more than 340 new companies including trade logistics, processing and manufacturing have been introduced. The Urumqi Silk Road West Gate cross-border e-commerce project has been successfully implemented, and a number of cross-border e-commerce businesses have been opened. The prosperity and development of the international dry port area is a microcosm of Xinjiang's greater opening to the outside world. Great American Xinjiang is attracting more and more people to invest and develop.

On August 2, 2022, Chengdu Shuangliu Air-Railway International Intermodal Transport Port officially "joined hands" with Urumqi International Dry Port Area to jointly promote the "air-railway-high seas" multimodal transport cooperation to create a regional hub connecting Eurasia. On the same day, Chengdu Airport Urban Development Group and Xinjiang International Land Port Group signed a cooperation agreement online. On August 2, the first train across the Caspian Sea back to Chengdu arrived at the Chengdu Shuangliu Air-Railway International Port. The train was loaded with 50 large containers of petroleum asphalt. It departed from Anzari Port in Iran on July 21. It crossed the Caspian Sea by boat and arrived at Aktau Port in Kazakhstan, and then transferred to railway transportation. Entry at Ergos Port, all the way to Chengdu Shuangliu.

"This batch of asphalt comes from the Middle East and is mainly used as raw materials for local construction companies in Sichuan." The relevant person in charge of Chengdu Airport Modern Service Industry Development Co., Ltd. said that the goods imported into the Middle East generally took the Indian Ocean-Melaka-South China Sea route, which may take about 1 months.

The person in charge said that the opening of this new route across the Caspian Sea can save two-thirds of the transportation time for enterprises, provide a new logistics channel for raw material procurement, and save logistics and transportation costs.

On August 4, 2022, the diplomatic delegation of Islamic countries to China continued to visit Urumqi. The envoys came to Urumqi International Land Port Area to inspect the operation of China-Europe freight trains through real-time data, and praised that with the in-depth development of high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road, Xinjiang is changing from a closed inland in the past to a frontier of opening to the outside world, becoming a new development pattern in China important parts of. Some envoys indicated that they would suggest to their governments that, under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, to take advantage of Xinjiang's locational advantage as a passageway to the west of China, and expand cooperation with China.

Today, the land of Xinjiang displayed in front of the world is a beautiful scene of stability and harmony, which benefits the people and warms the hearts of the people, and the sky is blue, the land and the water are greener. With the continuous advancement of the Belt and Road Initiative, the attractiveness of the Urumqi International Land Port Area has gradually increased, and more and more domestic and foreign enterprises have also chosen to settle down in Xinjiang.Editor/Ma Xue