In 2020, a record 12,406 China-Europe freight train journeys were made, up 50 percent from 2019. The number hit 1,165 in January, up 66 percent year on year. It is reported that the EU statistics agency Eurostat has said China last year overtook the United States as the EU’s biggest trade partner, with the bilateral trade totaling around 586 billion euros (about 711 billion U.S. dollars).

The New Eurasian Land Bridge is an international passageway linking the Pacific and the Atlantic. The bridge runs from China’s coastal cities of Lianyungang and Rizhao to Rotterdam of the Netherlands and Belgium’s Antwerp, passing through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany. It serves more than 30 countries and regions.