On Sunday, customers were seen shopping at a retail store at Zhengzhou East Railway Station in Central China's Henan province. Some read the label of the product carefully, some window shopped and some used mobile phones to check the product's price on other e-commerce platforms.
"I bought some green bean cake from Malaysia. I don't know the taste but it's worth to try," a customer said, lining up to pay the bill.
The store, like tax-free shops at airports, sells imported products, mostly carried by freight trains from Europe and Central Asian countries to the inland city.
The products include cosmetics, wine, beverage and snacks.
Similar outlets have also been set up in cities across the province by Henan Central China Railway Tourism Group.
The China-Europe freight trains have become a link for global partners to share the benefit from the Belt and Road Initiative. "We are trying to bring the benefits from the cross-border freight trains to local residents," said Han Wei, general manger of the group.
Zhengzhou, the capital of the inland province Henan, has extended its link with the world via the cross-border freight trains.
The first China-Europe freight train departed from Zhengzhou in 2013.
"At the beginning of the operation, there was one service each month, but now there are as many as 34 train services every week," said Li Wenbiao, Party chief of Putian freight railway station in Zhengzhou, where all such trains depart the city.
The station has adjusted the facilities and service systems such as adding more tracks in the station, building operation lines to cater for containers and launching a system to prevent containers from uncoupling from each other to cater to the increasing number of the China-Europe freight trains, Li said.
Since the launch of the service, more than 8,400 freight train services carrying 730,000 containers have operated between Zhengzhou and Europe. Among them, more than 4,300 are outbound services and about 4,000 are inbound, according to China Railway Zhengzhou Group, the regional service operator.
Its network has extended to more than 140 cities in over 40 countries.
Top priority
China's two major railways — the North-South bound Beijing-Guangzhou Railway and the East-West bound Lanzhou-Lianyungang Railway meet in Zhengzhou, which means that freight trains from the East, West, South and North pass the city.
About 10 percent of freight trains across China stop at Zhengzhou North Railway Station for a number of reasons, including inspections, recouping and sorting work.
Zhengzhou North has one of the largest marshaling yard in China, boasting a complicated fan-shaped network of tracks and switches where railway cars can be sorted and made into trains that will head in different directions.
There are intertwined railway tracks and countless engines waiting to be coupled. Inspection workers walk through the trains and examine the status of each car to ensure that none has been damaged during their journey.
Freight trains from all over China gather at Zhengzhou North, undergoing the process of inspections, separating cars and changing engines in the classification yard.
At the busy station, employees see China-Europe freight train service as a priority.
"We always spare one or two operation lines for China-Europe freight trains, to ensure the train can be ready soon after its arrival," said Zhi Hui, Party chief of the station's dispatch plant.
When a China-Europe freight train undergoes recouping at Zhengzhou North, they go through thorough inspections by examiners.
"The team to examine China-Europe freight train is the most experienced inspectors. They can spot the size of a plate, which is critical to the train's braking system with bare eyes," said Ma Tianyi, head of a plant that manages the trains' inspection from China Railway Zhengzhou Group.
If the plate is thinner than 20 millimeter, it has to be replaced.
"When examining a train, inspectors have to change about 30 such plates," he said.
It takes about 4 hours to inspect one train.
When the train passes inspection at Zhengzhou North, it goes to Putian freight railway station to be ready for the cross-continent journey.
On Sept 17, a full-loaded train carrying a variety of products including medical equipment, auto parts, toys, food, furniture and home appliances departed from Zhengzhou Putian station, via Ereenhot, bound for Hamburg, Germany. The journey will take about 15 days.
Faithful customers
The safe and reliable service has attracted an increasing number of clients.
"Our company has used the service for 10 years. At first, there was only a few containers a month, but now we send about 600 to 700 containers every month. The variety of products have also improved from less than 10 to nearly 300," said Kong Weidong, general manager of the Zhengzhou office of a freight transport agency in Shanghai, adding that to take care of the growing business, the Zhengzhou office has hired more workers.
"When we first started our business in Zhengzhou, there were about two to three employees. Now our team has grown to about 100," he said.
"Although the foreign trade business this year is very complicated, we are optimistic about the China-Europe freight train services. We want to take the geographic advantage of Zhengzhou to extend more routes in Russia, Central Asia and even ASEAN countries," he said.
He said the freight train service is a safe, reliable, efficient and economized choice for customers.
It saves time and it is less affected by the weather, unlike sea transportation, he said.
The company has about 800 clients, with about 30 percent foreign companies and the rest domestic ones.
"At first, customers, especially foreign clients, did not know the service. We told our customers that it was a very good choice," he said.
"One of the Germany company was not interested in the service in 2015 when I first introduced it to them. I made a thorough introduction to them but they were still not interested. But the customer turned back and found us about 3 or 4 years later. They wanted to try the service after a few years' observation," he said, adding that the company has since become one of their loyal clients.
Kong also noted that the service has improved over the years.
Better services such as tracking system and cold-chain carriages are offered, he added.
The freight train service has not only benefited the inland province of Henan but also other parts of China.
In March 2011, a new era in rail freight was ushered in when a train left Chongqing and traveled through Central Asia to Europe, establishing a viable alternative to sea and air shipping.
Over the past decade, 77,000 China-Europe freight train trips have been made, carrying 7.31 million containers with a total estimated goods value exceeding $340 billion.
The transportation network of the China-Europe train services has connected 217 cities in 25 European countries.
