Abstract

● On November 18, 2014, the first “YXE” China Railway Express (YiwuMadrid) set off from Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, China, passing through the Alataw Pass in Xinjiang, and finally reached Madrid, Spain after 13,052 kilometers travelling. Until now, Yiwu-Madrid is still the international

rail freight transport route crossing the most countries, and it is also, it is one of the routes with the longest rail freight distance.

● Rooted in global changes of a magnitude not seen in a century, YXE originated from the historical memory of Eurasian Land Silk Road crossing northern Xinjiang, energized two long-silent Eurasian land bridges, responded to the call of the times for expanding international cooperation, provided maximum convenience on commerce, trade and investment for countries along the route, and became a crucial channel for people around the world to know, understand and communicate with each other.

● YXE is Zhejiang’s international rail freight transport unified brand. YXE currently has two platforms, Yiwu and Jinhua. The Yiwu platform has been successfully operating 19 routes, covering 51 countries and regions, connecting 160 cities. In 2022, YXE launched 2,269 train trips, increased by 7 times compared with that in 2015, with the transportation value increased by 4 times to over RMB 40 billion. The types of export commodities from China, which were initially small commodities, have gradually covered high-value, high-value-added and high-tech products, such as photovoltaic components, automotive vehicles and accessories, high-end mechanical equipment, smart phones, etc.

● YXE has significantly promoted the along the route countries commerce and trade. From 2014 to 2022, the total goods trade between China and Spain increased steadily, and Spain has witnessed a doubled goods export to Zhejiang. From 2017 to 2022, the goods trade value between Zhejiang and the five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) leaped by 2.3 times, and the value of goods imported by Zhejiang

from the five Central Asian countries experienced an exponential growth, from less than RMB 700 million in 2017 to RMB 4.3 billion in 2022, with an average annual growth rate of 45%.

● YXE not only plays the role of transportation, commerce and trade, but also greatly enhances the knowing, communication and friendship between China and foreign countries. Cities along the YXE, such as Madrid, Irún, Brest, Warsaw, Moscow, Minsk, Astana, etc., have walked into the daily life of the Chinese people through commodities and medias, thus making Chinese people more learned about beautiful, diverse foreign customs and cultures.

● During the global COVID-19 pandemic, China Railway Express (CR express) launched dozens of train trips for special anti-pandemic goods. From 2020 to 2021, CR express delivered 13.62 million pieces, 105,000 tonnes international cooperation anti-pandemic goods in total, which greatly alleviated the shortage of local medical supplies, making it a truly 'goods life line' and

'bond of solidarity' for the world to fight against the pandemic.

● YXE Yiwu Platform is operated by a local private company. It is a classic project which shows working mechanism innovation with Chinese characteristics, and it is also a representative cooperation among various departments of different countries. Merchants, operation platforms, government departments of along the route countries coordinated with others with self-innovation spirit, continuously uplifting YXEs transport efficiency .

● YXE's robust performance exhibits the vigour of long-distance international rail freight transport on Eurasia. This type of freight transport is still a 'new things' that did not experience great development in the history. Comparing with air transport and transoceanic shipping, it shows a unique combination of space, time and price, with 5 main advantages on scheduled time, secure transportation, fast speed, affordable price, and environmentally friendly, thus having huge development potential in the future.

● The YXE (Yiwu-Madrid) route currently can reduce the logistic time to 17 days under smooth transport corridors & stable transportation market condition, compared to about 45 days by traditional transocean+ground transportation. When the price is relatively stable, the unit weight TEU freight rate of YiwuMadrid route is 1/10 of air transport. In contrast to the soaring international freight rate in 2021, YXE maintained a price fluctuation far lower than that of transoceanic and air transport. In addition, railway transport to central and northern Eurasia shows much more striking advantages in time and price.

● CR express has promoted the Eurasian Land Bridge construction. ChinaKyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway construction is about to start in 2023, and is expected to be the third land bridge connecting China and Europe. It will be the shortest land passage connecting China and Eastern Europe when finished, meanwhile, reducing the railway distance from Yiwu to southern Europe by 15%.

● YXE has witnessed huge progress through its development and construction over the past nine years. However, it is facing new challenges such as the insufficient railway infrastructure along the route restricting transport amount, transport efficiency restricting logistic speed, and the risk of border closure after the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis, etc. Future development still requires along the route countries working together to strengthen infrastructure construction and to reform cooperate system barriers, so as to further speed up the train with increased efficiency, making YXE better serve the economy development for countries along the route, and effectively improve the living standards of local people.

● YXE promotes infrastructure building, showing huge potentials for China and Europe to cooperate on railway construction & operation with Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries. Europe is one of the regions with the highest railway line density among the world, with many Europe countries having advanced railrelated techniques and operation experience. For example, Spain has the second longest high-speed rail mileage in the world, reaching 3,762 kilometers; 0.79 kilometers per 10,000 people, ranking first in the world. At the same time, many

BRI countries are lack of railway infrastructure and are still in urgent need for modern railway & train system. The huge demand provides promising prospects and possibilities in railway construction and operation cooperation among China, Europe and BRI countries.

● Looking forward, YXE will become an international logistics brand with higher competitiveness and reputation of Zhejiang. Based on goods import and export in the province, especially small commodities commerce in Yiwu, YXE will continue to the promote integration of upstream & downstream logistics chain, to drive industrial upgrading, and to make full use of digital economy creating an international chain of digital and green train transport. YXE is sure to become a gold brand providing integrated cross-border logistics service in the future.

● Relying on the two corridors 'Yixinou' and 'Yiyongzhou' (Yiwu-NingboZhoushan), Yiwu connects Eurasia to the west, and the vast ocean to the east. The hardworking, diligent and brave Yiwuese will further upgrade infrastructure, provide administrative system guarantee, implement the new pattern of development that promotes positive interplay between economic domestic circulation and international circulation, improve efficiency on the export side, enhance quality and quantity on import side, pull together the world's hearts through commerce, trade and investment, and contribute Yiwu strength to promot the development of a human community with a shared future.