This undated file photo shows a waybill issued in 2007 for a freight train departing from China to Latvia. (Chengdu International Railway Port Administrative Committee/Handout via Xinhua)

Wang Haiyang, general manager of the Chengdu branch of logistics company Shenzhen Neptune Logistics Co., Ltd, displayed a waybill of the company in 2007. On it, there were over 20 stamps plus a jumble of handwritten notes in different languages.

He recalled how the cargo -- four tonnes of glass -- was transported from Qingdao, a major port city in east China's Shandong Province, to Riga, the capital city of Latvia, over a period of 36 days.

"Logistics enterprises back then had to go to the railway station to pick up the waybill before departure and take it to customs for inspection and to have it sealed. After that, the waybill would be kept by the driver and be checked by every country along the route. That's why there are so many stamps and signatures on it," he said.

"Even after arrival, it took us another three days to go through all the clearance procedures and have the delivery accepted," said Wang. "Now the China-Europe train only takes about a third of the time."

The tall order was made possible via a basket of innovations China has made to boost the service. A conspicuous improvement was the intermodal transport document.

Traditionally, the delivery of goods by railway involves multiple parties and waybill standards are not uniform among countries. So a journey could require several waybills and none of them could be used to pick up the goods, making delivery time-consuming and costly.

The intermodal transport document, however, simplifies these en-route procedures and substitutes all waybills. It can also work as a certificate for enterprises to raise funds from the bank.

The document, introduced in 2017, has provided great convenience for foreign trade enterprises and is being widely accepted.