When the train arrives tomorrow, it'll be the dawn of a new era for the historic Silk Road. The East Wind locomotive will travel 7,456 miles from Eastern China to Britain, carrying loads of goods of 34 carriages, in its 16-day travel.
The Daily Mail reports that the train will pass through Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Poland, Belgium, and France before it pulls into Hackney Rail Freight terminal in London's East End on Wednesday. Onetwothree Logistics Manager, Oscar Lin, said, "This cargo train service highlights the important trade partnership between the UK and China post-Brexit."
Taking the ancient route, it is noted that the trip's journey will be faster than a container ship and cost half the price of air freight. London will also be considered as the 15th city directly linked to China.
Anthropologist Prof Magnus Marsden of the Sussex University's School of Global Studies said in a report by the Guardian, "It's a new economic geography." He cites that this will be the first train to the UK, but very much part of a new type of commercial route.
"The commodities are small," he said. "It's not the big corporates who will be using this train, so it's very much in the tradition of the Silk Road, giving opportunities for those who are in fact the inheritors of those ancient traders today."
The old trading route was believed to have been used in 200BC. It brought Chinese silk, gems, commodities, western textiles, spices, cultural items or even diseases.
Rightly named as the East Wind, the train hopes to establish a good UK-China relations. In fact, the name was derived from Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong, who quoted, "The east wind will prevail over the west wind."
Operations Director Mike White said, "We believe this is going to change the way a lot of forwarders and shippers view their imports and exports for China."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
