On November 15, the Department of Commerce of Zhejiang Province revealed that on November 13, the 2000th train of the Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe (YXE) China Railway Express (CRE) this year departed from Yiwu to Madrid, Spain, loaded with 50 carriages of “Made in Zhejiang” goods. With this trip, the YXE CRE has completed its annual goal one and a half months ahead of schedule, and it is now expected to run more than 2200 trains in the calendar year.

As a bright feature of Zhejiang’s opening to the rest of the world, the number of YXE CRE trains has been growing continuously since its first train launched in 2014. Especially impressive in light of the complex and changeable international situation and the impact of the pandemic, the CRE has reach an average annual growth rate of 194% since 2020, and the number of launched trains has ranked the third in the country, which ranked ninth previously. This provides Zhejiang with strong support for stabilizing the supply chains of international industries and serving the new development pattern of dual circulation. The YXE CRE has become one of the ten landmark projects of Zhejiang’s participation in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Since the start of this year, with the goal to be more high-quality, sustainable, and market-oriented, Zhejiang put made great effort into further stimulating the market vitality of the YXE CRE and promoting the formation of sea-and-land multi-modal transport and an east-west mutually beneficial development pattern. Zhejiang has established an online digital service system for the YXE CRE through digital reform, realizing paperless declaration for the trains, convenient customs clearance, intelligent operations, and digital decision-making. Utilizing digital technology to empower the YXE CRE, Zhejiang has built a national model for digital CRE trains. (By Yang Yinjun and Chen Lei, translated by Shen Yingying, edited by Kendra Fiddler)