This photo taken on June 14, 2025 shows an inbound China-Europe freight train (R) and an outbound one at the border gate at Erenhot Port in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Yin Dongxun)

The Middle Corridor of the China-Europe Railway Express has handled more than 20,000 trains in cumulative operations since its first train in 2013, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday.

The 20,000th train departed from the Erenhot Railway Port, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, on Sunday, carrying 55 containers, according to Xinhua, citing China Railway, the operator of the China-Europe Railway Express. 

The Erenhot Railway Port is a critical hub for the China-Europe Railway Express Middle Corridor. In recent years, with deepening international trade cooperation, Erenhot has seen significant growth in train routes, train numbers, and frequency. Cargo has shifted from metals, chemicals, and clothing to high-value products like new-energy vehicles, electronics, and household appliances.

The Middle Corridor of the China-Europe Railway Express hit 10,000 trains in 2022 and doubled to 20,000 in just three years. It now operates 73 routes, connecting more than 70 hubs in more than 10 countries, including Germany and Poland, and covering more than 60 cities across 24 provincial-level regions. 

The Middle Corridor, officially known as the Trans-Caspian East-West Middle Corridor, traverses Kazakhstan, crosses the Caspian Sea, and continues through Azerbaijan and Georgia before reaching Europe via Türkiye, according to the Belt and Road Portal, an official website for introducing Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation.

"The Middle Corridor is no longer just an idea. It is step by step becoming a real corridor," Fatih Erdogan, CEO of Pasifik Eurasia, a Turkish logistics company, told Xinhua, commenting on the launch of two freight trains from China to Türkiye via the Middle Corridor in late July.

Erdogan said that compared with traditional sea routes, the Middle Corridor offers not only a shorter path but also greater controllability. "These trains carry not only containers but also vision, trust, strategy, and a shared future," he said. 

Currently, three primary corridors -- the West, East, and Middle -- under the China-Europe Railway Express have taken shape, connecting China and Europe, according to China Railway.

The China-Europe Railway Express is a flagship project of the China-proposed BRI, which aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe, Africa and beyond.

Currently, 128 Chinese cities operate the China-Europe Railway Express, connecting 229 cities in 26 European countries and more than 100 cities across 11 Asian nations. 

The range of goods transported has expanded to 53 categories and more than 50,000 types, with high-value items like automotive parts, machinery, and electronics accounting for more than 60 percent of exports in 2024, according to China Railway. 

Successfully addressing safety challenges for railway transport of electric vehicles (EVs) and consumer lithium batteries, the express service enables the "new trio" products - EVs, solar batteries, and lithium-ion batteries -- to reach Eurasian markets by freight train, said China Railway.

With the BRI's advancement, the railway express has gained popularity among clients in China and Europe for its advantages in time, cost and capacity, establishing itself as a third logistics option alongside maritime and air transport. 

The China-Europe Railway Express offers shipping costs at one-fifth of air freight and transit times at one-quarter of sea freight. With minimal impact from natural conditions and high stability, it strongly appeals to products requiring significant volume and timely delivery, according to the China-Europe Freight Train Development Report published in 2022.

Arkadiusz Filipowski, CEO of Polish logistics firm Fulfilio Sp. z o.o., told the Global Times that the company benefited from China-Europe freight trains, a hallmark of the BRI. 

"Poland is a key logistics hub for Chinese and Asian customers. It is a forefront EU entry point along the BRI. Our geographic position makes us ideally placed to connect Asia with the rest of Europe and shorten delivery times. Our company is dedicated to e-commerce operations. We support Asian clients - particularly Chinese sellers - seeking to enter the European market through major platforms like Amazon, eBay, and Cdiscount," Filipowski said.

The BRI has facilitated transportation, especially between inland places, Dusan Skuban, a senior business developer at CTP Group, a listed European developer, owner and operator of industrial and logistics properties, told the Global Times.

Skuban noted that this is one of the reasons that CTP follows the BRI routes to build warehouses, from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea, while also citing an increasing number of Chinese customers.