page_title: Yiwu–London railway line
section_title: Politics
hierarchical_section_title: Yiwu–London railway line / Politics
caption_attribution_description: Polski: 20/06/2016 Udział Prezydenta RP i Przewodniczącego ChRL w inauguracji połączenia kolejowego „China Railway Express”. Fot. Andrzej Hrechorowicz.
context_page_description: The Yiwu – London Railway Line is a freight railway route from Yiwu, China, to London, United Kingdom, covering a distance of roughly 12,000 km. This makes it the second longest railway freight route in the world after the Yiwu-Madrid railway line, which spans 12,874 km. It is one of several long-distance freight railway routes from China to Europe on the "New Eurasian Land Bridge" and part of establishing a modern-day Silk Road. The route was opened on 1 January 2017, making London the 15th European city to have a railway route connection with China, and takes 18 days to complete.
  From Yiwu, a trading center 300 km south of Shanghai, the track passes through 9 countries: China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium, France, UK. In order to get to the UK the route passes through the Channel Tunnel between France and the UK. The London end of the line is located at the DB Eurohub in Barking, East London.
context_section_description: While the physical manifestation of and the need for the Silk Road may have eroded over the years due to the collapse of the Safavid Empire and advances in technology, Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s "One Belt, One Road" policy has breathed new life into trade of goods by land.  The initiative calls for integration of the countries that make up the ancient Silk Road into a robust economic area. The integration will take place through building infrastructure for broadening trade, and increasing cultural exchanges. One Belt, One Road calls for three distinct routes to be established: north, central and south. The north route goes through Central Asia, Russia and then Europe. The central route goes through Central Asia, West Asia, Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean. The south route goes through Southeast Asia and to the Indian Ocean. The Yiwu-London train is part of the north route.
  While the Eurasian Land Bridge was completed in 1990, when the railway systems of China and Kazakhstan connected at Alataw Pass, it was first in October 2008 that the first Trans-Eurasia Logistics train reached Hamburg from Xiangtan officially traveling along the entire north route. However, it is only since July 2011 that the railway line has been used for regular transport when a freight route was established between Chongqing, China, and Duisburg, Germany (the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe Railway). Since then several other European cities have established railway freight connections with China on the network. London is the latest European city to establish such a freight route when the Yiwu-London route opened in January 2017. It is expected that the importance of the railway trade routes will increase with time, as anticipated cumulative investment over an indefinite timescale for the One Belt, One Road policy is estimated to be between 4 and 8 trillion US dollars.
  The Yiwu–London railway line opened just as Britain was looking outside of Europe to expand its trade, as it is unclear how Brexit will affect UK trade with Europe. British Prime Minister Theresa May triggered Article 50 in March 2017, officially starting the Brexit negotiations. It is unknown whether the Yiwu–London railway line will lead to increased trade between China and the UK. Both governments hope that it will help strengthen trade between the two countries, but the service was only scheduled to run once a week for a few months in order to assess demand. If successful, the rail link could be made permanent. The China-Madrid railway line has experienced success by transporting olive oil back to China and it is expected that in order to become as successful, the China-London line will need to establish a similar export flow. The export flow will most likely consist of British designer goods, providing an opportunity for companies to expand to Chinese markets.
caption: Poland's President Andrzej Duda and China's leader Xi Jinping wave to the crowd during the inauguration of the railway line in Warsaw, Poland, 20 June 2016
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "2266", "Image ImageLength": "1511", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS-1D X", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2019:12:15 23:30:09", "Image ExifOffset": "284", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "966", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7544", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/2000", "EXIF FNumber": "16/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:06:20 18:03:32", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:06:20 18:03:32", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1370723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "209759/62500", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "70", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "73", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "73", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2266", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1511", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1296000/731", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "86400/49", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "253010000421", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[70, 200, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "0000c2e63d"}