A bowl of oil-splashed noodles. (Screenshot from Xinhua Video)
"Sizzle!" -- In a noodle restaurant in Xi'an, the capital city of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, scalding rapeseed oil instantly burst forth among the bright red chili flakes and chopped green scallions. This bowl of freshly cooked oil-splashed noodles was instantly endowed with a "soul", carrying the inviting aroma of Kazakhstan wheat, and gained the favor of the diners from all directions at the restaurant.
"Previously, it was the 'lychees' that were hard to acquire in Chang'an. Now, Central Asian flour can reach Xi'an in just 7 days. This is a miracle created by the China Railway Express," said Liu Dongmeng, Party Chief of Xi'an Aiju Grain & Oil Industrial Group (Aiju). Xi'an is an ancient imperial capital formerly known as Chang'an.
Wheat fields near Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, Sept. 3, 2024. (Xinhua)
Good Taste, Shared by All
Amid the whistles of the China Railway Express (CRE) trains, the "distance on the tip of the tongue" is being redefined. More and more exotic foodstuffs are arriving in China via the "steel camels" -- the express trains, enriching the dining tables of Chinese people; while the "Chinese flavors" that the Chinese are proud of are also traveling along the same railway tracks to the homes of people across the Eurasian continent.
Before the Spring Festival in 2025 in Xi'an, the pace of "food express delivery" is becoming increasingly tight. On January 10 this year, a CRE train carrying 1,300 tons of imported finished flour from Kazakhstan arrived in Xi'an smoothly. This train did not stop at Xi'an International Port Station, but directly entered the Aiju Agricultural Products Logistics and Processing Park through a dedicated railway line.
Coming all the way from Aiju's overseas factory in North Kazakhstan, this "door-to-door" train arrived efficiently and precisely in time for the Chinese New Year shopping rush of Xi'an residents.
Consumers are picking juices from Central Asia at the "China Railway Express (Xi'an) Import Commodity Festival for Chinese New Year ", Feb. 1, 2024. (Xinhua)
In an imported goods supermarket less than 500 meters away from the train's terminal, the shelves are filled with a wide variety of exotic foods that attract customers to stop and browse. There are ice cream from Kazakhstan, honey from Kyrgyzstan, red wine from Georgia, juice and sausages from Russia... These "foreign goods for Chinese New Year" transported by the CRE trains have become bestsellers during the festival.
At the same time, Chongqing Tuanjiecun Central Station also witnessed a bustling Chinese New Year shopping rush. On the morning of January 17, 2025, a CRE train fully loaded with European delicacies such as candies, waffles, macarons, beers, and beef smoothly arrived. These delicious items would soon become sought-after goods in domestic supermarkets and restaurants.
In the past, it was difficult for meat products from merchants in Russia, Belarus, and other European countries to reach the Sichuan-Chongqing region. The operation of the CRE trains has reduced the transportation time from one and a half months to two weeks. This not only enables consumers in Sichuan and Chongqing to enjoy high-quality and low-price imported meat but also allows European merchants to share the dividends of the Chinese market.
As the delicious foods from Asian and European countries enter the lives of Chinese people through the CRE, the flavors of China are also traveling along the railway tracks to distant places. Under the abundant sunlight in Xinjiang, tomatoes are washed, boiled, and concentrated into thick and smooth tomato paste. After careful canning and neat boxing, they are securely loaded onto the trains bound for Italy.
Not only that, on the shelves of supermarkets in Berlin, Germany, Sichuan Pixian Douban and Shanxi mature vinegar, among other "Chinese flavors," have quietly occupied a place; in the corner cafes of Paris, France, the rich and mellow aroma of Yunnan coffee wafts through the air; one by one, the CRE trains cross mountains and seas, delivering high-quality Chinese agricultural products such as tea, fruits, and rice to the people of Asian and European countries, and are increasingly favored by local consumers.
Delicious Food Bridges True Friendship Across Borders
While connecting the delicious foods of various countries in Asia and Europe, the CRE service has also strengthened the people-to-people bond.
Not far from Yiwu International Trade Market, there is a restaurant named "Sutan". Ozcan Sozer, a Turk, is busy greeting customers. The aroma of grilled meat and the rich flavor of specialty coffee blend together, making this authentic Turkish restaurant one of the popular spots in Yiwu, a city in east China's Zhejiang Province.
In 2009, Ozcan Sozer ended his football career due to an injury and traveled 10,000 kilometers to start a business in China's Yiwu. With the entrepreneurial vision of "creating warm dining experiences in a warm city," he has been in the business for over a decade. The opening of the CRE (Yiwu) has been a great boost to his business.
In 2017, Ozcan Sozer introduced the Turkish national brand MADO ice cream to Yiwu and opened the first MADO ice cream-themed Western restaurant there, attracting many customers. Previously, the raw materials for the restaurant should be carried by sea, taking 1 to 2 months. Later, with the CRE service, the delivery time was shortened to about 20 days, greatly improving convenience and safety. Taking advantage of this convenience, Ozcan Sozer plans to build an ice cream factory in Yiwu and expand his business to other cities in China.
Now, Ozcan Sozer, who is passionate about Chinese culture, has become a "new Yiwuer." His two daughters attend school in Yiwu, and Chinese has become their first language. He hopes to be an ambassador of Turkish culture -- "Introducing Turkish cuisine and culture to Chinese friends and seeing them understand and like Türkiye brings me great joy."
In the Russian Pavilion of the Qingdao SCO Demonstration Zone, Dimash, a Russian young man, wore a small panda badge on his chest and skillfully introduced the goods on the shelves, such as chocolate with fillings and local honey. "All these goods were brought by the CRE," he said. His fluent Chinese made the customers feel very close.
This year marks Dimash's 11th year in China. "The Chinese say, 'A friend from afar comes.' The CRE has enabled me to make more friends," he said happily.
Win-Win Plan: Building Success Through Cooperation
The flow of delicious food and the warming of friendship cannot be achieved without the support of a "good plan," which is an important foundation for all parties involved in the cooperation to achieve a win-win situation.
"The seeds haven't even been planted in the soil, but the purchase contract has already been signed. The price is transparent and fair," said Baorjiang, a farmer in North Kazakhstan, looking at his ten-thousand-mu (one mu equals about 666 square meters) wheat field. His smile was brighter than the wheat ears under the sun. He had once been troubled by the difficulty of selling his grain, but the "order agriculture" model brought by Aiju finally put his mind at ease.
To solve the problems of "difficulty in growing grain and difficulty in selling grain" in Kazakhstan, Aiju led the establishment of a new type of order agriculture cooperative, inviting experts from Northwest A&F University, AL-Farabi Kazakh National University, and local farmers to participate together. They adopted the "order agriculture and order purchase" model and implemented a full-chain operation mode covering planting, management, harvesting, and storage, guiding local farmers on "what to plant and how much to plant."
Aiju's agricultural product logistics and processing park in North Kazakhstan Region, Kazakhstan (Xinhua)
As a result, the blueprint has turned into a concrete and practical cooperation project. Today, Aiju has reached a 1.5 million-mu order agriculture planting cooperation with Kazakhstan and has built an oil mill, a flour mill, a feed mill, and a noodle factory, as well as a 100,000-ton grain warehouse and six dedicated railway lines in the local area, providing stable employment for over 1,000 local people. The farmers' lives have come "vivid" along with the crops thriving in the fields. Baorjiang watched the grains being delivered according to the order and felt a sense of security he had never experienced before.
Looking back thousands of years, the camel caravans on the ancient Silk Road carried silk and spices, leaving footprints of cultural exchange in the desert. Today, the "steel camels" carrying all kinds of delicious food set off with whistles, writing a new story of connecting Europe and Asia along the railway tracks.
When diners in that noodle restaurant in Xi'an praise the noodles in their bowls, they might not imagine that the raw materials come from thousands of kilometers away in Kazakhstan. When "distant places" are no longer geographical barriers but the fresh and fragrant flavors on the tip of the tongue and the warmth felt in the heart, this touch on the taste buds is like an invisible thread that transcends borders and connects people from different countries. (By Jiang Yani)
A single purchase
