Feb.27--THE first train to complete the world's longest rail journey from China to Spain has returned home after a 16,156-mile backhaul to Yiwu through France Germany, Poland, Belarus and Kazakhstan, reports the London Independent.
The 82-container cargo train began its journey in November in the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu laden with goods for the Christmas trade, arriving in Madrid mid-December.
The train returned to Yiwu last weekend in central Zhejiang province, carrying olive oil and other Spanish goods. The line is 450 miles longer than the Trans-Siberian Railway, which links Vladivostok to Moscow.
The Chinese line suffers from a need to change rail gauges three times, but shippers at both ends say the train provides a vastly faster service than ocean carriage and is substantially cheaper than air cargo.
Yiwu, a city of 1.2 million, 175 miles southwest of Shanghai, is growing at an exponential rate, and in 2014 its combined imports and exports were valued at US$23.7 billion, a 28.6 per cent year-on-year increase.
(Source:shippingazette)