An aerial drone photo taken on Nov. 18, 2024 shows a CRE train is departing from Yiwu West Railway Station. (Xinhua)
"This speed is amazing!" lauded Carlos, who lives in Madrid, Spain, placed an order one day for a batch of fitness equipment made in China. The next day, he received the goods.
These fitness equipment were dispatched from an overseas warehouse of a cross-border e-commerce company located in Spain. They were transported by the China Railway Express (CRE) trains from Yiwu of east China's Zhejiang Province, covering a distance of over 13,000 kilometers to Madrid, and then delivered to various parts of Europe through the local overseas warehouses.
"Order online and receive the goods the next day," said Ms. Qi, a resident of Chengdu, who purchased several products she liked through the online mall of the Chengdu-Eurasia National (Commodity) Pavilion.
A citizen is experiencing craft beer at the Italian Pavilion of the Chengdu-Eurasia National (Commodity) Pavilion in Chengdu International Railway Port, on July 17, 2020. (Xinhua)
Chengdu International Railway Port is one of the starting points of the CRE (Chengdu & Chongqing) in Chengdu, the capital city of southwest China's Sichuan Province. The Chengdu-Eurasia National (Commodity) Pavilion is located in the core area of the port, where a wide variety of European specialty goods transported by the CRE are displayed. In 2024, the Chengdu-Eurasia National (Commodity) Pavilion launched an online mall, allowing consumers to place orders directly online and achieve "purchasing globally in Chengdu" with just a few clicks.
Such stories are frequently played out in other cities in China. In the early summer, the Xi'an Chanba International Port in northwest China's Shaanxi Province is lush with greenery and full of vitality. This is where Yuan Zhaohui started his cross-border e-commerce business. Currently, he is in Horgos of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, thousands of miles away, busy shipping fresh-cut flowers from China to Central Asian countries.
Yuan Zhaohui and his wife Anita, who is from Kazakhstan, founded Shaanxi Silk Road City Holding Group Co., Ltd. in 2015, operating the cross-border e-commerce sales platform "Silk Road City". In 2017, the couple's company began to use CRE (Xi'an) trains to transport goods, not only selling products from countries along the CRE route to China but also exporting more high-quality Chinese goods overseas.
Yuan Zhaohui, together with his wife Anita and child, are touring the Big Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. (Xinhua)
Relying on the platform of Xi'an Comprehensive Bonded Zone and the channel advantages of the CRE (Xi'an), Xi'an Chanba International Port has vigorously explored the integrated development model of "CRE + cross-border e-commerce", launching dedicated cross-border e-commerce trains, radiating to Central Asia, Russia, and other European countries, and attracting e-commerce sellers and courier services providers such as Cainiao International, French CMA CGM, and Pinduoduo International, to settle down in the industrial park.
To promote the development of cross-border e-commerce, Xi'an Chanba International Port has also reached cooperation with the Kazakhstani e-commerce platform Kaspi and the Swiss mobile e-commerce platform ZoodMall, expanding e-commerce business in countries along the CRE routes, cultivating local leading e-commerce enterprises, and assisting the rapid growth of small- and medium-sized cross-border e-commerce enterprises. Among them, the Shaanxi Silk Road City Holding Group Co., Ltd., founded by Yuan Zhaohui and his wife, has invested in building an overseas warehouse with a total area of approximately 15,000 square meters in Kazakhstan and successfully created the "Chang'an Flower" online flower brand.
Staff members are sorting goods at Cainiao's overseas warehouse in Guadalajara, Spain, on Nov. 11, 2020. (Xinhua)
The strong support of "overseas stations" is indispensable for efficient cross-border logistics. In the spacious and bright warehouse in Duisburg, Germany operated by Western Post, multiple towering storage shelves are neatly arranged, with goods of different specifications from the CRE stacked on them.
Duisburg, located in western Germany, is an important hub for the CRE in Europe, providing an efficient transfer point for China-Europe logistics and having a significant geographical advantage in China-Europe trade. A few years ago, Western Post, a Chinese technology-based logistics enterprise headquartered in Shenzhen, established an overseas warehouse in Duisburg, focusing on the e-commerce field and providing various services such as third-party warehousing, drop shipping, truck delivery, and customs clearance support.
This European hub also has a close connection with Yiwu, China, spanning thousands of miles. Since the launch of the CRE from Yiwu, friendly exchanges and trade between the two places have become increasingly close and fruitful. The modern logistics industry brought by the CRE has greatly revitalized this old industrial city of Duisburg.
In nowadays, as global trade ties become increasingly close, overseas warehouses can help Chinese goods quickly enter overseas markets, reduce logistics costs, and enhance market competitiveness. This innovative cross-border logistics service model not only shortens the physical distance but also narrows the psychological gap between merchants and consumers, making it an indispensable part of the high-quality development of the CRE.
These "overseas stations" have become the assembly, distribution and delivery centers for overseas cargo of the CRE. They not only provide comprehensive services such as customs declaration and clearance, post-distribution and logistics warehousing, but also enhance the service level of the train itself, saving the comprehensive logistics costs for cross-border e-commerce enterprises and foreign trade enterprises, and helping them further improve their overseas efficiency and perfect their service chains.
In the future, these overseas warehouses will continue to serve as important assistants to the CRE, helping Chinese goods reach the world and facilitating overseas consumers to purchase what they need. The CRE trains carry not only increasingly convenient trade exchanges among countries along the routes, but also common business opportunities for all. (By Gu Shanshan)
A single purchase
