A train carrying 41 containers departed from Tangshan in Hebei Province on April 26 with destination Antwerp, traveling 11.000 kilometers through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany. The train service will cut transport time from the usual 45 days by sea, to just 16 days. Tangshan has two port districts: Jingtang and Caofeidian. They handled 573 million tons of freight last year. The freight service offers a new way not only for the freight of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei to Europe, but also for that of Japan and the Republic of Korea to Europe via China, said Xu Fengyi, Director of Tangshan Customs.

Tangshan, about 150 km from Beijing, is known for its coal resources and steel industry. In 1881, a 9.7-km railway line from Tangshan to Xugezhuang opened for coal transport. Designed by English engineer Claude Kinder, it was the first line with a global standard track gauge of 1,435 mm in China, the Shanghai Daily reports. The line was later extended to Mukden, now called Shenyang in Liaoning province, transporting both cargo and passengers. During the extension project, Zhan Tianyou, a Yale graduate and designer of a railway bridge along the line, Luanhe Bridge, drew the attention of the government. Zhan was later appointed Chief Designer of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou line, the first railway designed and built by China in the early 20th century, which is still in use. “Although the design and construction were done by Chinese people, all parts, including every single nail, were imported from abroad,” said Gu Lin, Manager at Tangshan South Station, the starting point of the Tangshan-Xugezhuang line.

By March, freight trains were operating between 43 Chinese cities and 41 cities in 13 European countries.