An aerial drone photo taken on July 13, 2026 shows China-Europe freight trains waiting for transshipment at a yard of Suifenhe Station in Suifenhe, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Photo by Qu Yiwei/Xinhua)
BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- China-Europe freight trains have made more than 130,000 trips and transported goods with a total value exceeding 520 billion U.S. dollars, latest official data showed Tuesday.
By June 2026, the loaded container ratio of the China-Europe freight trains had remained at 100 percent for 46 consecutive months. In terms of transport efficiency, the full journey from Xi'an of China to Duisburg of Germany has been reduced to as short as 11 days, according to Liang Linchong, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
As a flagship project and a landmark brand of the Belt and Road Initiative, the China-Europe freight train service, also referred to as the "steel camel caravans," has established a comprehensive logistics network across Eurasia. This June marks the 10th anniversary of the China-Europe freight train service adopting the unified brand of China Railway Express.
Liang told a media conference on Tuesday that the freight train service also reported an average annual growth rate of over 30 percent over the past decade in terms of annual trips, from 1,702 trips in 2016 to 20,022 trips in 2025.
"Currently, the number of trips in a single month already equals the total annual figure for 2016, demonstrating strong development resilience and growth potential," Liang said.
According to the official, customized trains and e-commerce trains have been introduced to meet diversified and personalized market demands, while the portal website for the service is becoming a multilingual, round-the-clock and one-stop service platform for global users.
In the next step, the NDRC will continue to strengthen the service's brand building, improve its internationalization and marketization, and enhance its resilience for better quality and efficiency in development, Liang added.
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