Nestled on the China-Kazakhstan border in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Horgos, which means «camel caravans pass» in Mongolian, stood as a vital staging post on the ancient Silk Road more than 1,000 years ago, bridging trade and cultural exchanges between the East and the West.
Today, the faint jingle of camel bells has long given way to the rumble of freight trains speeding by. This time-honored gateway has re-emerged as a core hub of the China-Europe freight train services, the fast-expanding «steel camel caravans» network that has transformed Eurasian connectivity and brought shared prosperity for previously landlocked regions across the continents.
The transformation began to gather pace since June 2016 when previously scattered cross-border rail services between various Chinese cities and Europe were consolidated under a single brand: the China-Europe Railway Express (CRE), in an effort to boost the Belt and Road cooperation.
Annual trips have surged from 1,702 in 2016 to 20,022 in 2025, now connecting 129 Chinese cities with 236 cities across 26 European countries.
Shuai Bin, a professor in the School of Transportation and Logistics at Southwest Jiaotong University, said the CRE services have helped reshape Eurasian connectivity by building a land-based logistics system anchored in international rail corridors.
«The CRE has drawn global resources and production factors further into inland regions, while fostering a new pattern of opening up featuring highly-coordinated development between coastal ports and inland hubs».
As CRE services continue to expand and upgrade, Chinese inland cities such as Chongqing, Chengdu, Zhengzhou and Xi’an have risen to the forefront of Eurasian logistics flows, solidifying their status as key nodes in global supply chains. «Inland Chinese cities have leveraged the CRE to accelerate their integration into global industrial, supply and value chains, while Eurasian inland countries like Kazakhstan and Mongolia have transformed from geographically ’landlocked’ states into important logistics nodes linking Asia and Europe».
European cities have also become deeply embedded in this evolving trade artery. Duisburg, a German city on the Rhine River, now handles about 30 percent of total China-Europe rail freight volume, according to Markus Teuber, China affairs commissioner in Duisburg.
Over the past ten years, the number of Chinese-invested enterprises in Duisburg has risen from 40 to over 120, generating more than 20,000 new jobs across the logistics industry chain.
In recent years, Eurasia’s transport arteries have been operating against the headwinds of geopolitical tensions. The ongoing regional conflicts have triggered disruptions to major logistics corridors, with land routes facing sustained pressure and maritime passages suffering disruptions from time to time, laying bare the fragility of global supply chains.
Against this backdrop, the China-Europe freight train services have helped provide more diversified and resilient logistics options for the Eurasian continent.
