The Chengdu International Railway Port, which recently dispatched the milestone 120,000th China-Europe Railway Express (or China Railway Express, hereinafter referred to as CR Express) freight train, welcomes another significant event: the 2025 China-Europe Railway Express (Chengdu-Chongqing) Global Partners Conference is held today in the Chengdu International Railway Port Economic and Technological Development Zone. Nearly 500 guests, including executives from suppliers, international logistics providers, and large manufacturing enterprises across Europe, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia, will explore broader and deeper cooperation opportunities with the CR Express (Chengdu-Chongqing). The event is expected to yield a series of significant outcomes.

Having sounded its whistle for over a decade, the CR Express stands as a flagship project and emblematic brand of the Belt and Road Initiative. It also serves as both a witness to and a direct participant in Sichuan's efforts to expand high-standard opening-up. During the inspection in Sichuan in July 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping made a series of important instructions, entrusting the province with the mission to build "two highlands, two bases, and one shield". He emphasized that "the principle must be upheld that the development of Sichuan and Chongqing must be taken into overall consideration to strengthen the cooperation between the two regions, in order to build a strategic highland for opening up to the west and a new base for participating in international competition, so that Sichuan and Chongqing will become an important growth pole and a new source of power for promoting high-quality development in the western region as soon as possible". His instructions provide clear direction and a fundamental guideline for Sichuan's efforts to expand its opening up.

Sichuan has largely completed its strategic "four-way and eight-corridor" comprehensive transportation network. It consistently leads central and western China in foreign direct investment (FDI), ranks fourth nationwide in the number of international sister cities, and has seen its total import and export volume surpass the one trillion yuan mark. In recent years, Sichuan has fully implemented the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, consistently treating the expansion of high-standard opening-up as a major priority in governing and developing the province. The scale of its openness has continued to grow, its capacity for openness has significantly increased, and its open framework has become more comprehensive. These developments have accelerated the establishment of an all-round, multi-tiered new pattern of openness.

Accumulating momentum for opening up and showcasing its posture of openness, much like the "steel camel caravans" speeding along the Asia-Chengdu-Europe Air &Rail International Train, Sichuan is accelerating its pace in opening up to the west.

An Invisible Super Network

Underpinning Sichuan's Opening-Up Ambition

Several days ago, news that the 120,000th CR Express train had departed from the Chengdu International Railway Port dominated headlines. Chengdu is one of the first cities in China to operate this express service. The CR Express (Chengdu-Chongqing) has become the national leader, boasting the highest number of train services, the most balanced operation, the greatest cargo value, the optimal cargo structure, the most extensive regional cooperation, and the most stable transportation performance among all CR Express routes.

"The 120,000th CR Express train is primarily loaded with 'Made in Sichuan' products and cross-border e-commerce goods. Sichuan-flavored products like the Hao Ren Jia Hot Pot Base and Huang Laowu Nut Crisps are very popular among consumers in Europe and Africa," said Su Chang, General Manager of Sichuan Silk Road Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd., the cargo owner for this train service. Su Chang explained that, following its designated route, the CR Express train will be sorted and distributed in Małaszewicze, Poland. Its cargo will ultimately be delivered to European cities such as Duisburg, Germany, Lyon, France, and Antwerp, Belgium. Some products will also be transferred via Antwerp to ocean freight for onward shipment to the port of Casablanca in Morocco, North Africa.

A mature and extensive corridor network, coupled with a stable and time-efficient departure schedule, is the fundamental reason for the outstanding performance of this train service. This route provides enterprises with a new, highly efficient, and stable rail-sea intermodal transportation channel to explore the African market, significantly enhancing the competitiveness of their products overseas. Its full-process service guarantee, featuring fixed schedule, fixed stops, fixed routes, and fixed train numbers, gives shippers full confidence, ensuring immediate onward shipment of goods upon arrival.

A single CR Express trip can simultaneously serve two entirely different consumer markets in Europe and Africa. Behind this seamless flow of goods lies the tangible outcome of Sichuan's accelerated efforts to build a hub-and-spoke system for the CR Express assembly center and establish the Asia-Chengdu-Europe Air &Rail International Train as a major international strategic channel. This has gradually formed an international railway and rail-sea intermodal transportation network with Chengdu as the main hub, radiating westward to Europe, northward to Mongolia and Russia, eastward to Japan and South Korea, and southward to ASEAN countries. The network now connects 162 cities at home and abroad.

On the wall of the conference room at Chengdu International Railway Port Investment &Development (Group) Co., Ltd. hangs a large-scale map of the international freight train corridor network. Routes marked in different colors render Sichuan's "invisible super network" of opening-up clearly visible and tangible.

Starting from only one rail line and now achieving "blossoming across the entire region", from the initial birth of the CR Express to the flourishing development of various international routes such as the China-Laos Railway and the China-Central Asia freight trains, these international corridors collectively underpin the "steel framework" of Sichuan's opening up in the new era.

Integrated Development of Transportation, Trade, and Industry

Doing Business with the World

Over the more than ten years of operation of the CR Express, one question has been repeatedly raised: on the journey from China to Europe, the train passes through over ten countries, undergoes multiple reloading operations, and switches drivers 50 to 60 times along the way; in contrast, sea and air transport offer direct, one-stop delivery with no need for reloading or crew changes. So why would anyone still choose rail transport?

This "stop at every station" model may seem cumbersome, but in reality, it precisely creates opportunities for businesses to engage in trade with countries along the route. "A common sight is some cargo being unloaded in Poland, some in Germany, and some continuing to France. A single train service can serve clients in multiple countries. This 'ride-sharing' model is particularly friendly to small and medium-sized enterprises," noted executives from freight forwarding companies that have long collaborated with the CR Express.

TCL Optoelectronics Technology (Chengdu) Co., Ltd., among the first batch of enterprises to settle in the Chengdu International Railway Port Comprehensive Bonded Zone, tells another story—its core components are manufactured in Sichuan, while the finished products are assembled at its factory in Łódź, Poland. Leveraging the transcontinental logistics chain of the CR Express, TCL has established an efficient and stable international supply chain, enabling rapid responses to changes in the international market.

Since last year, TCL has continued to expand its investment at the Chengdu International Railway Port, successively launching projects such as the FFALCON Gaming Monitor Global Intelligent Manufacturing Base and the Global Innovation and Intelligent Manufacturing Base for Big-Screen TVs. In the first nine months of this year, the company's output value increased by 99.72 percent year-on-year, while its foreign trade import and export value grew by over 90 percent year-on-year. Its overseas market share continues to expand.

Leverage corridors to boost trade, and trade to drive industry. In recent years, Sichuan has continuously amplified the "CR Express Plus" effect, accelerating the integrated development of transportation, trade, and industry. This model has closely linked and efficiently aggregated scattered industrial nodes along the route, giving rise to distinctive industrial clusters.

Import and export trade continues to expand. Dozens of categories comprising thousands of products "Made in Sichuan", including complete vehicles and automotive parts, laptops, and more, are shipped via the CR Express along this new trans-Eurasian trade corridor. This practice continuously deepens Sichuan's trade ties with the world.

International industrial division of labor and collaboration have become increasingly closer. Companies such as TCL, Lenovo, and Dell have established efficient, flexible, and low-cost global production and distribution systems through the CR Express. Automakers like Volvo and Dongfeng Peugeot Citroën are accelerating the optimization of their supply chain organization models to better integrate into the global industrial division of labor. Leveraging the advantages of the CR Express and open ports, Hong Kong's Yuhu Group has built more stable international industrial and supply chains.

Today, the production operations of different enterprises are interconnected through international freight train routes: European technicians work overnight to debug production lines, staff at the Chengdu International Railway Port work around the clock in three shifts to tally goods at the port, and customs officers in Southeast Asia expedite clearance procedures.

The CR Express, traversing the world from east to west, is far more than a simple transportation corridor. "If you wish, a single freight payment from Sichuan connects you to hundreds of cities for business." This industry assessment stands as its most vivid illustration.

Leveraging the Power of Openness to Integrate Global Resources

Engaging Deeply in the New Pattern of Development

Over the past two years, the term "innovation" has increasingly become a distinctive hallmark of the high-quality development of international freight trains. Milestones include the first-ever railway shipment of lithium-ion batteries originating from Sichuan in China, followed by the launch of the nation's first "CR Express + Low-Altitude Logistics" distribution model at the Chengdu International Railway Port, utilizing drones for rapid cross-border goods delivery. Each wave of innovative exploration not only breaks through existing developmental bottlenecks but also underscores Sichuan's unwavering confidence and determination to expand high-standard opening up.

In recent years, anchored to its positioning as "building a strategic highland for opening up to the west and a new base for participating in international competition", Sichuan has actively leveraged its role as an open gateway and hub. On one hand, it has deepened and expanded into the "blue ocean" of economic and trade cooperation with countries to the west, creating platforms for pan-Asian and pan-European collaboration to help extend the nation's strategic westward space. On the other hand, it has actively served and integrated into the new pattern of development, strengthening core functions such as trade and investment, market expansion, and institutional innovation. This has continuously enhanced its hard power in global competition, accelerating its transformation into a robust pillar for shaping new national competitive advantages.

There is another landmark milestone. The Provincial Conference on Opening up and Development held in November last year further clarified the guideline of "expanding westward, advancing southward, connecting eastward, and integrating northward". It emphasized a greater commitment to coordinating the development of opening-up corridors, platforms, and hubs to comprehensively enhance the competitiveness of the open economy. At the same time, a series of policy measures have been successively introduced, including the ten measures on opening up, the 18-point plan for stabilizing foreign trade scale and optimizing its structure, and the nine measures to stabilize foreign trade, all aimed at fully securing orders and expanding markets. The comprehensive implementation of the pilot free trade zone upgrading strategy and the steady expansion of institutional opening up serve to address challenges arising from various uncertainties with the certainty of our own development.

Sichuan has been accelerating the shift from the hinterland to the forefront. The 14th Five-Year Plan period has been five years of navigating winds and waves for Sichuan in expanding high-standard opening up, and also five years of abundant achievements.

Sichuan is advancing the qualitative improvement and quantitative expansion of its "international circle of friends". Currently, 24 foreign consular missions have been approved to establish a presence in the province. Sichuan has also added 138 new international sister cities and friendly cooperative relationships, bringing the total to 543. This not only signifies a global reach for its "circle of friends" but also reflects increasingly robust and deepening ties.

The strategic "four-way and eight-corridor" comprehensive transportation network has been fundamentally established. The accelerated development of an international transport network that "radiates westward to Europe, northward to Mongolia and Russia, eastward to Japan and South Korea, and southward to ASEAN countries" is well underway. The two major airports in Chengdu now provide international routes to 43 countries globally, marking a new leap forward in the international transport system. This multi-dimensional transportation system is better connecting the region with the world.

Efforts are actively underway to build efficient cooperation platforms and continuously enhance the open capacity of key institutional carriers, including pilot free trade zones, national-level economic and technological development zones, comprehensive bonded zones, and integrated pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce. These platforms have attracted a number of foreign-invested projects to establish and expand operations in Sichuan, such as the Airbus aircraft full-lifecycle service project and the Albemarle lithium hydroxide battery materials production base in Meishan. Sichuan has maintained its leading position in central and western China in terms of the amount of its actual utilized FDI, marking another step forward in international cooperation.

"Amidst the great changes unseen in a century, Sichuan's level and capacity for opening up have stood the test," commented an industry insider. The data speaks for itself. In 2024, Sichuan's foreign trade once again surpassed the one-trillion-yuan mark, achieving three historic milestones: record-high import and export volume, an unprecedented contribution to the country's foreign trade growth, and the largest-ever cohort of active foreign trade entities. Both trade in services and two-way investment maintained leading positions in central and western China. In the first ten months of this year, Sichuan's export volume exceeded the 500-billion-yuan mark for the first time, setting a new historical record.

When the whistle of the "steel camel caravans" at the Chengdu International Railway Port sounds again, the trains carry not only goods in containers but also the new goals and aspirations of Sichuan, as it accelerates the construction of a strategic highland for opening up to the west and a new base for participating in international competition.

Today, durians from Southeast Asia and salmon from Northern Europe are continuously arriving in Chengdu, Sichuan, via the land-based "steel camel caravans" and the aerial "Air Silk Road". From there, they are rapidly distributed to consumer markets in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, and other provinces and cities.

Goods from both ends of the globe—from the heat of the south to the cold of the north—are making Chengdu, Sichuan, their first port of call in China. This confirms a reality: a national distribution hub for specialty products is taking shape in Sichuan. As an inland province of China, Sichuan is accelerating the integration of global resources, promoting the agglomeration of production factors, and deepening industrial capacity cooperation, all through a proactive opening-up stance, thereby becoming deeply integrated into the new development pattern of "dual circulation", where domestic and international economic flows reinforce each other.

As the country wraps up the 14th Five-Year Plan and sets the course for the 15th, Sichuan is accelerating the construction of a strategic highland for opening up to the west and a new base for participating in international competition. By pursuing a high-standard opening up, the province is striving to write a new chapter of Sichuan in advancing Chinese modernization.