- Ferrying medical supplies among others, China-Europe freight train service has resumed, boosting Europe's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic;
- With increasing transport frequency and volume, the steady and reliable service is helping sustain international trade and global supply chains at a tough time;
- China is making efforts to extend a helping hand and to restore and raise the production capacity of medical and anti-epidemic supplies;
- China-Europe freight train service is an important component of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
by Xinhua writers Feng Yasong, Gao Wencheng, Zhu Sheng
BEIJING, April 18 -- This week in the western German city of Duisburg, after the arrival of a China-Europe freight train from Wuhan, once the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, Chinese diplomats and local officials posed for a group photo while maintaining a safe distance from each other.
The train, which was loaded with medical supplies, auto parts, electronic products, and optical communication fibers, among others, was a stellar example of how China and Europe can stand together in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and challenges posed by the contagious disease.
Chinese and German guests attend the welcome ceremony of China-Europe freight train from Wuhan of central China's Hubei Province, in Duisburg, Germany, April 14, 2020. (The Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Dusseldorf/Handout via Xinhua)
Around the time the train arrived in Germany, another two China-Europe freight trains, under the operation of China Railway Express, one departing from southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, the other setting out from the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu, also rumbled across the Eurasian continent and arrived in Europe.
BUSINESS RESUMPTION
Since it resumed intercontinental train service on March 28, Wuhan, the capital city of the central Chinese province of Hubei, has seen the departure of four freight trains, loaded with 195 containers of goods for Europe.
According to Wuhan Asia-Europe Logistics, the operator of the trains in Wuhan, their loading rate is above 98 percent, and the goods, including face masks, surgical gauze and first-aid kits, were transported and then distributed to Germany, France, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland.
