On January 18, 2017, in London, the capital of the United Kingdom, the rainy days suddenly cleared and the sky was blue. At exactly 1:00 noon, drums sounded at Bajin Railway Station, and accompanied by exciting music, the lion dance team began a wonderful performance. Many people gather here to welcome a special guest, which is the China Railway Express from Yiwu, China.

The British Broadcasting Corporation broadcast live the entire process of the train entering Bajin Station, and the total number of people watching it online reached 2.7 million. This "modern version of the ancient Silk Road" will surely usher in a new era of trade relations between the East and the West. "

Market Complementary Trade Link

As early as the Western Han Dynasty, camel caravans of merchants traveled to and from Eurasia, and walked out of the earliest Silk Road. Today, the China Railway Express continues to write a new chapter of the ancient Silk Road. Since the Belt and Road Initiative was put forward, this "steel camel caravan" has traveled through the main areas of the Eurasian hinterland, connecting nearly a hundred cities between China and Europe, forming an international trade artery through the Eurasian continent, and connecting the Asia-Pacific economic circle and the European economic circle.

Wherever the trains go, the nodes and tracks of international trade will be laid there, providing rare business opportunities for local people and enterprises, and thus receiving praise and active participation from various countries.

Anita, a girl from Kazakhstan, is one of the thousands of entrepreneurs who have benefited from the China Railway Express. Her husband, Yuan Chaohui, is Chinese, and the young couple are doing cross-border e-commerce business between China and Kazakhstan.

In the beginning, due to the large local demand for Chinese clothing, luggage and other daily necessities in Kazakhstan, the young couple's business was good. As the business grows bigger and bigger, the shortcomings of poor logistics become more and more obvious. "Traditional logistics methods are too slow. We used to joke that if we buy a skirt in summer, it will be autumn when it arrives." Anita said, "Later, we switched to road transportation. Although it is faster, the transportation cost is still high." It is very high, the logistics cost of a car with a load of 7 tons is at least 30,000 yuan, and the customs clearance procedures are very cumbersome.”

In November 2013, the China Railway Express (Xi'an) opened. The young couple feel that the opportunity to make the business bigger is coming! In 2015, the China Railway Express (Xi'an) entered normal operation, and Anita's company became the first company to carry cross-border e-commerce goods in the Xi'an International Port Area. The previous logistics problems are now solved: a 20-ton container to Almaty costs only 27,000 yuan, and the time is reduced from one month to less than seven days.

The upgrade of the logistics method has rapidly expanded the cross-border e-commerce territory of the young couple to many countries in Europe and Asia. Anita said: "I was lucky to catch a ride on the China-Europe Railway Express, which reduced our logistics costs and significantly shortened the transportation time, so that our customers no longer have to look forward to the goods they ordered, and the funds can be returned quickly and Turnaround. The China Railway Express really helped us solve a big problem!"

At the end of 2016, they changed the name of the online operation platform to "Silk Road City". In 2017, the export volume of the "Silk Road City" cross-border e-commerce platform increased by 30 times year-on-year. The thriving "Silk Road City" has established e-commerce overseas warehouse sorting centers in five cities including Almaty, Karaganda, Moscow, Yekaterinburg, and Novosibirsk, further reducing logistics costs and shortening delivery time. Anita said: "The China Railway Express is full of opportunities. We are all dreamers and dreamers. In the future, wherever the China Railway Express goes, our "Silk Road City" will be built."

It is the original intention of the China-Europe Railway Express to communicate with each other. However, in the early days of the trains, the shortage of return goods has always been a problem that plagued the development of China-Europe trains. Now, gone are the days of "one goes, one never comes back." The imported BMW sedan ordered by Zhang Dong, a veteran car driver in Chongqing, arrived in Chongqing by the return train. It took less than 20 days from ordering to picking up the car. In 2019, China Railway Express (Chongqing) made 1,507 round trips, carrying 133,000 TEUs of imported and exported goods. Among them, imported complete vehicles have become one of the stable sources of goods for Chongqing's return trains, and European commodities such as auto parts, maternal and child products, food, and health care products have also become "frequent customers" on the manifest.

China Railway Express (Chongqing) is not a special case. From 28 trains in 2014 when China Railway Express opened its return journey to 872 trains in 2019, it has increased by 31 times. Return commodities have gradually expanded from mechanical equipment, wine, automobiles and accessories at the initial stage of operation to precision instruments, environmental protection equipment, high-end clothing, cosmetics, fresh milk and dairy products.

Every year when the Spring Festival approaches, the China-Europe Railway Express plays the role of "New Year's goods train". Spanish red wine, Belgian chocolate, Dutch dairy products, Russian non-staple food, etc. These "foreign New Year's goods" enter the homes of ordinary people in China, making China People's New Year is more colorful.

The person in charge of a Spanish wine manufacturer with a century-old history said that thanks to the China-Europe Railway Express, the sales channels of red wine have become wider in recent years, and now he travels between the two countries several times almost every month. The manager of the cosmetics company in Madrid also sighed: "The huge potential of the Chinese market is far beyond my imagination. I have found the direction of future company development in the Chinese market."

Smooth visa policy

The China-Europe Railway Express across Asia and Europe needs to change tracks when traveling in various countries. What's more troublesome is that the waybill must be replaced, that is, the visa for the railway to enter the country.

Whether the "visa" is smooth or not directly restricts the operation of the train. China-Europe trains need to abide by the two major international railway cargo transport conventions, the Convention on the International Carriage of Goods by Railway ("CIM") and the "Agreement on International Railway Freight Transport" ("SMGS" for short). The main members of the former are European countries, and the main members of the latter are the Commonwealth of Independent States. China joined SMGS in 1953.

When the China Railway Express (Chongqing) enters Europe, it will pass through Malaszewicz in Poland. After the train arrives here, it must go through customs clearance before continuing to Europe. When driving back to China from Europe, it is also necessary to declare and clear customs at the border station in Europe.

For enterprises relying on China-Europe trains to do business, changing orders not only delays time, but also wastes manpower and material resources, which greatly affects the operational efficiency of trains. If you can reduce the process of changing orders midway, improve the efficiency of customs clearance and punctuality, and even save a few hours when changing orders along the way, it will also play a big role in improving the timeliness of China-Europe trains.

The China Railway Express (Chongqing) part of the goods first tried to use the SMGS/SMGS unified waybill. Through the use of the SMGS/SMGS unified waybill in Chinese, English and Russian, the halfway order exchange process is reduced. The expressions in the three languages directly reflect all the information on the unified waybill, which effectively reduces the cost for customers. Cost and port stay time.

The unified waybill has also been promoted in other trains. On this basis, China Railway Express also promotes the standardization of trade document formats and trade procedures, establishes a unified trade platform and automated customs clearance system, unifies rules, and reduces customs clearance procedures. The facilitation measures have made the China-Europe Express not only "passable", but also "smooth", which has promoted the innovation of the international railway express waybill.

Railroad tracks become lifelines

In the spring of 2020, a sudden outbreak of new coronary pneumonia broke out in many places around the world, and soon spread in Europe. Many European countries have announced "closed countries" and "closed cities". In the face of the virus, the common enemy of mankind, China has joined hands with other countries to jointly promote international cooperation to fight the epidemic, demonstrating the responsibility of a responsible major country.

During the epidemic, the shortage of anti-epidemic materials is one of the most important problems facing European countries. At the same time, the epidemic has brought a greater impact on the international logistics industry, especially the aviation and shipping industries. The world's major economies pay more attention to the safety of industrial chains and supply chains .

On March 21, the country's first "anti-epidemic material train" went from Yiwu, China to Madrid. This train was loaded with 115,000 masks and 766 sets donated by Yixinou Company to the Spanish Ministry of Health and the Chinese Embassy in Spain. protective suit. Sixteen days later, the train arrived in Madrid smoothly, and was highly praised by the Spanish government and the president of the Madrid Region Government.

Taking this train as a starting point, as of the end of July 2020, China-Europe trains have shipped a total of 4.97 million pieces or 39,000 tons of international cooperation epidemic prevention materials, mainly arriving in Italy, Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Lithuania and other countries , and use these countries as nodes to distribute to more European countries.

Something similar happened in Hungary. On April 7, the China Railway Express (Jinan-Budapest) departed from Jinan, China, loaded with 41 containers, departed from Erenhot, entered Hungary via Mongolia, Russia, and Ukraine, and arrived in Budapest after a 17-day journey.

On this train, there are not only trade goods such as computer bags, colored pencils, portable electric drills, and fitness equipment, but also reproducible materials urgently needed by European manufacturers such as automotive heat exchangers, injection molds, laser levels, and plastic bottles. Of course, the most concerned is the anti-epidemic protective materials.

Mosozzi Laszlo, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary, attended the arrival ceremony of the China Railway Express (Jinan-Budapest). A reliable friend, a large number of ventilators, protective equipment, and masks have greatly improved Hungary's epidemic prevention capabilities."

And on the day when the China Railway Express (Jinan-Budapest) arrived in Hungary, another train carrying medical supplies and engineering equipment was sent from Zhejiang to Minsk, Belarus, which solved the urgent need for epidemic prevention and production in the China-Belarus Industrial Park.

China's railway ports are racing against time, improving customs declaration efficiency, shortening the stay time of China-Europe trains at ports, and gaining the initiative for international cooperation in fighting the epidemic. The China Railway Express transported a large amount of anti-epidemic medicines and materials to Europe, building a bridge to protect lives. Indeed, with the spread of the global epidemic and the obstruction of international air and sea transportation, the China-Europe Railway Express has laid a "healthy silk road", which has become a lifeline for transporting epidemic prevention materials and daily necessities to European countries.

China Railway Express is a train full of friendship and hope. It sows the seeds of a better life in the civilized and fertile soil of Eurasia, connects people's hearts, and is warmly welcomed by countries and people wherever it goes.

In the eyes of the well-known flamenco performance artists in Spain, the China Railway Express is a cultural messenger, sowing the seeds of hope for a wonderful life. He said: "You may encounter such a train in your whole life. Only by catching up can you seize the opportunity to move forward. The China Railway Express is the train that I must catch." This poetic language expresses People's sincere affection for the China Railway Express also shows that the significance of the China Railway Express has gone beyond the material level and entered the hearts of the people of the countries along the route.Editor/XingWentao