According to data from Qingdao municipal bureau of transport, Qingdao has dispatched 520 China-Europe freight trains from January to June this year, ranking first in Shandong Province. 22 international routes give Qingdao access to 54 cities in 23 SCO member states or countries or regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

As a flagship project and a symbolic brand in the Belt and Road Initiative, the China-Europe Railway Express constitutes an important part of Qingdao’s four-pronged international logistics channel involving transportation by sea, land, air and railway. The construction of the Qingdao Collection Center for China-Europe Railway Express in the SCO Demonstration Area has entered the critical stage before put into operation. The warehousing area is expected to go into trial operation in the third quarter while the project will be entirely completed at the end of the year. With plans to build six centers, namely, the China-Europe Railway Express collection and operation center, the cross-border e-commerce center, the supply chain finance center, the commodity futures delivery center, the supervision center for imported grain and the international cold chain center, the project will boast a “logistics+trade+finance” ecosystem for freight trains.  (Zhou Jianliang)