Create a new engine for high-quality joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" Chongqing | Channel | Engine

Chongqing Guoyuan Port is the largest intermodal transportation hub port for railways, highways, and waterways in China's inland rivers, as well as an important pivot for the western land sea new corridor. The picture shows the overall view of the Orchard Port. Photo by Yuan Jirong, a journalist from People's Daily Online

"Recently, we imported 38 TEUs of Thai longan through the China Laos International Express. The entire transportation time was only 9 days, saving 5 days and more than 30% of costs." Deng Haoji, Chief Operating Officer of Hongjiu Fruit, said that the company has operated 16 factories in Thailand, Vietnam and other countries. The next step is to rely on the logistics network of the western land sea new channel to build a fruit distribution center in Chongqing, further expanding the market of ASEAN countries.

From the "Chongqing Guangxi New" multimodal transportation in 2017 to the "southbound channel" and then rising to the national strategic western land sea new channel in 2019, the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2022 clearly stated "accelerating the construction of the western land sea new channel". For more than six years, from the line to the network, it connects the Silk Road Economic Belt in the north, the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in the south, and the Yangtze River Economic Belt in coordination. The new land and sea channel in the west is becoming a benchmark for high-quality cooperation in building the "the Belt and Road". Recently, the reporter followed the theme interview activity of "the first line of the new western land and sea channel" of "the good scenery of the steel silk road", along the 1400 km long middle channel of the new western land and sea channel railway line, through the three provinces, districts and cities, climbing bridges, cargo yards, visiting trains, ports, and visiting the first line, and personally experienced and witnessed the prosperity and vitality brought by the new engine of high-quality co construction of the "the Belt and Road" built in China.

Creating a New Channel to Build a Large Platform for Western Modern Logistics System

The Western Land Sea New Corridor refers to a modern logistics system with Chongqing as the logistics and operation organization center, facing southward in China. It includes multimodal transportation modes such as railways, highways, waterways, airports, and ports. Currently, it covers 18 provinces, regions, and cities, and goods reach 393 ports in 119 countries and regions worldwide.

On the morning of July 19th, at the construction site of Bijie Station on the Xubi Railway in Guizhou Province, in the drizzle, power supply professionals were installing contact network positioning devices on their work vehicles. Today, 20 sets were installed.

"The Xubi Railway is a smooth project for the western land sea new channel western route. Currently, the pre station construction of the Guizhou section of the Xubi Railway has been basically completed, and about 80% of the post station construction has been completed." said Ai Tianxin, Deputy Director of the Engineering Department of the Guiyang Construction Command of China Railway Chengdu Bureau Group Co., Ltd.

The electrification renovation of the Huaihua section of the Jiaoliu Railway has been completed, and an additional second line of the Yuhuai Railway has been completed and put into operation. The Guiyang Nanning high-speed railway and the Xuyong Bijie railway are planned to open within this year... The railway network that connects north and south and goes out to the sea is accelerating.

As of July 2023, the western land sea new channel railway transportation has basically formed three main roads in the east, west, central and western regions as the skeleton, with railways in various provinces as the network, spanning the Eurasian continent and connecting the international railway pattern of the Indochinese Peninsula. The number of railway sea intermodal train routes has increased from one in 2017 to 16. In addition, the new land sea channel in the west also includes all southbound trade channel international trains, such as the China Laos railway international trains, the China Vietnam international trains, the Thailand Laos China Mongolia international intermodal trains, and the China Myanmar new channel international railway trains. The western land sea new channel also seamlessly connects with the China Europe freight train, serving both westward and northward trade; Seamless connection with the Yangtze River Economic Belt, serving eastward trade. In 2022, the China Europe freight train, the Western Land Sea New Channel, and the Yangtze River Golden Waterway intermodal transport exceeded 70000 TEUs.

Since ancient times, the Sichuan Road has been difficult, and the western land sea new channel has solved the geographical dilemma of the western region. Taking Chongqing as an example, taking the western land sea new channel rail sea intermodal freight train to Qinzhou Port in Guangxi for sea transportation saves about 10 days compared to traveling through the eastern region. The transportation categories of the Western Land Sea New Corridor have increased from more than 50 categories such as ceramics and panels to over 940 categories such as grain, automotive parts, computer parts, and decorative materials. According to data provided by China Railway Group, the container transportation volume of rail sea intermodal trains in the western land sea new channel has achieved strong growth in the past six years. From 2017 to 2022, the annual shipment of container goods by the rail sea intermodal freight trains of the Western Land Sea New Corridor increased from 3382 TEUs to 756000 TEUs, an increase of 223 times in six years. Li Ningxin, General Manager of China Railway Union Guangxi Company, stated that as of July 31 this year, a total of 495000 TEUs of rail sea intermodal trains have been sent through the Western Land Sea New Channel, a year-on-year increase of 12.5%.

At present, on average, one to two new categories of goods will be added to the western land sea new channel in one month. We are working together to build a large channel, hub, port, logistics, and platform, writing a new chapter in the new era of inland opening up. The Implementation Plan for Promoting the High Quality Construction of the Western Land Sea New Corridor during the 14th Five Year Plan period released by the National Development and Reform Commission proposes to basically build an economical, efficient, convenient, green, and safe western land sea new corridor by 2025.

The new engine plays the strongest voice of high-quality joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" in western China

At 10:33 am on July 21st, with a long whistle, the X9590 Western Land Sea New Channel Rail Sea Intermodal Train slowly started, carrying a total of 54 vehicles and 71 containers of 2275 tons of goods from Australia's kraft paper and Singapore's shortening, departing from Qinzhou Port East Station and heading towards Chongqing Xiaonanya, Gansu Zhongchuan North, and Sichuan Yibin North Station.

"Previously, this station was only a supporting facility of Qinzhou Bonded Port Area, surrounded by seawater, with only 3 tracks and 2 people on duty. In 2016, there was almost no freight volume, with only one or two freight trains departing per week." According to Huang Jiangnan, the director of Qinzhou Port East Station, with the deepening of the western land sea new channel strategy, Qinzhou Port East Station has rapidly developed into an international freight hub station with 12 tracks, 43 employees, and about 20 rail sea intermodal trains arriving and departing every day. The freight volume has increased from 27000 tons in 2017 to 3.275 million tons in 2022, an increase of 120 times.

Against the backdrop of a slowdown in global trade and investment, the Western Land Sea New Corridor has gone against the trend, demonstrating strong transportation capacity and vitality. In the first quarter of this year, 3717 containers of automotive spare parts produced in Sichuan, Guangxi, Chongqing and other places were exported to Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand, a year-on-year increase of 107.9%; 1134 containers of pulp produced in countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines were imported into Chongqing, a year-on-year increase of 40%. Now, Cambodian rice, Thai perfume coconut, mangosteen, Vietnamese passion fruit, durian... more and more agricultural products from ASEAN countries are entering the Chinese market through new land and sea channels, becoming "regular customers" on Chinese consumers' tables. China's new energy, new materials, and electromechanical products have entered the enterprises and households of ASEAN countries through the western land sea new channel.

In June this year, Chongqing residents noticed a significant drop in durian prices. According to data from Chongqing Shuangfu Fruit Wholesale Market, the wholesale price of durian in June was about 18 yuan per kilogram, a decrease of about 30% compared to May. This is closely related to the rapid import of durian from Thailand. In early June, a fresh Thai durian China Laos Thailand cold chain train carrying a total of 28 refrigerated containers of about 500 tons successfully arrived at Xiaonanya Station in Jiangjin District, Chongqing. This is the first time that Thai durian has directly reached the Chengdu Chongqing region of western China through the Western Land Sea New Channel railway train from overseas. "At that time, the entire station was filled with a strong aroma of durian!" The expression on Zhang Lei's face at Xiaonanya Station was still immersed in the exquisite fragrance of durian. According to him, it only took 88 hours for Thai durians to arrive in Chongqing from orchard picking, while traditional sea and road transportation routes take at least 10 days.

The radiation and driving role of the new land and sea channel in western China has been further strengthened, and it is becoming a powerful engine to promote the high-quality joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" in western China, which has injected strong momentum into the smooth domestic and international dual cycle. According to statistics, from 2017 to 2022, the total import and export trade volume of provinces along the Western Land Sea New Corridor through Guangxi ports increased from less than 300 billion yuan to over 520 billion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 12%. The latest data released by Chongqing Customs shows that in the first half of this year, the import and export value of provinces, regions, and cities along the western land sea new channel through the land sea new channel reached 350 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 40%. The import and export volume of the regions along the Western Land Sea New Corridor to the ten ASEAN countries has increased from 691.6 billion yuan in 2019 to 881.7 billion yuan in 2022, with an average annual growth rate of 8.91%.

New international economic corridor for maintaining global supply chain stability

Chongqing Wankai New Material Technology Co., Ltd. is a leading domestic polyester material research and development and production enterprise. According to Lin Zheng, the logistics manager of Chongqing Wankai New Material Technology Co., Ltd., looking at the business opportunities of the land sea new channel in the central and western regions, the company settled in the Fuling Lingang Economic Zone in 2018 and is building a new industrial cluster and the world's largest food grade PET production base in Fuling. Currently, the company's products have been exported to over 100 countries and regions worldwide. As of now, Chongqing Wankai has shipped nearly a thousand TEUs of goods through the Western Land Sea New Channel, with a total value of over 20 million US dollars. Among them, in the first half of this year, the company has shipped 364 TEUs of goods through the land sea new channel, with a sharp increase of 350% in shipping volume compared to 2022; The total value of goods is nearly 10 million US dollars, an increase of 300% year-on-year in 2022. Lin Zheng stated that in the future, the company will accelerate product exports through the Western Land Sea New Channel, achieve upstream and downstream industry linkage in the polyester industry, and stabilize the industrial and supply chains.

Near Qinzhou Port in Guangxi, the red characters of China Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park are particularly prominent. The foreign trade shops in the industrial park offer a variety of products from all over the world. Vietnam's coffee, Malaysia's durian, Indonesia's instant noodles... The new cooperation model of "two countries, two parks" created by China Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park and Malaysia China Kuantan Industrial Park plays an important role in the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" between China and Malaysia. With the acceleration of the construction of the Western Land Sea New Corridor, the investment value of the two industrial parks is further increasing.

Not only have the "Two Countries and Two Parks" ushered in new development opportunities, but projects such as the China Indonesia Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, the China Brunei Fishery Cooperation Demonstration Zone, the Thailand China Rayong Industrial Park, and the Philippine Asia United Steel Plant are also accelerating. The number of international cooperation parks between Guangxi and countries and regions such as Vietnam, Brunei, and Malaysia has increased to more than 20.

Zhai Kun, Director of the ASEAN Research Center at Peking University, said that the Western Land Sea New Corridor is not only a logistics corridor, but also an economic corridor. It follows the development concept of modern channel economy and hub economy, and uses transportation logistics channels and transportation logistics hubs as carriers to systematically build international trade corridors and economic corridors with deep connections between supply chains, industrial chains, and value chains.

Qinzhou Port in the Beibu Gulf of Guangxi is an international gateway port for the Western Land Sea New Corridor. The picture shows the automated container terminal of Qinzhou Port. Provided by China Railway Group

The Tuanjie Village Railway Center Station in Chongqing International Logistics Hub Park, Shapingba District, Chongqing is the main departure station for the Western Land Sea New Corridor. The picture shows a busy container loading and unloading area. Photo by Yuan Jirong, a journalist from People's Daily Online

The Wuliping Extra Large Bridge in Bijie, Guizhou is a key control project of the Guizhou section of the Xubi Railway under construction, and also one of the main channels of the Western Land Sea New Corridor. The picture shows the construction site of the Wuliping Extra Large Bridge. Photo by Yuan Jirong, a journalist from People's Daily Online

The picture shows Nanning International Railway Port in Guangxi. Photo by Yuan Jirong, a journalist from People's Daily Online

The X9590 West Land Sea New Channel Rail Sea Intermodal Train departs from Qinzhou Port and is bound for Chongqing Xiaonanya, Gansu Zhongchuan North, and Sichuan Yibin North Station. Photo by Yuan Jirong, a journalist from People's Daily Online

Customers purchase foreign goods at the foreign trade store in the China Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park. Photo by Yuan Jirong, a journalist from People's Daily Online

China Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park. Photo by Yuan Jirong, a journalist from People's Daily Online