Chengdu aims big for opening-up, global trade

Railway express and airport expansion help make city into international transportation hub

The steady advancement of international cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative and the construction of major international trade channels such as the China-Europe Railway Express and the New Western Land-Sea Corridor have brought significant opportunities for opening-up and development to inland cities in China. Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province and a fast-rising new first-tier city in China, is taking advantage of the momentum and marching toward the broad world stage.

Chengdu is 1,700 kilometers from the nearest coastal port. With the opening of international trains and the establishment of an international aviation hub, it has leapt from an inland Chinese city to an international gateway connecting the world.

International trains

"The number of trains is increasing year by year and the loads are getting larger," said Zhong Junlan, driver of the first China-Europe train from Chengdu to Lodz, Poland, which was launched in 2013.

Over the past 10 years, the China-Europe Railway Express, which runs somewhat along the ancient Silk Road, has become an international transportation path through the Eurasian continent thanks to its high efficiency and stability.

The China-Europe (Chengdu) Railway Express, which departs from the Chengdu International Railway Port, has become well-known across the country by virtue of its large number of operations, wide coverage area and excellent transportation timeliness.

In 2022, there were more than 2,000 China-Europe freight trains running in Chengdu, connecting more than 100 overseas stations and 30 domestic cities.

The fastest train from Chengdu to Europe took just 10 days.

Zhong said the goods on the China-Europe (Chengdu) Railway Express used to include auto parts and TV panels, but now encompass a larger variety of items. "We can buy a lot of affordable imported goods everywhere," he said. "We can also bring Sichuan's special products to the world."

New energy vehicles made in China have recently been exported to Europe on the China-Europe (Chengdu) Railway Express. In October 2022, the month after the China Railway Express lifted restrictions on the transportation of new energy vehicles, the China-Europe (Chengdu) Railway Express began shipping new energy vehicles to Europe.

"I hope that through the China-Europe Railway Express, we can provide better channel guarantees for the development of Chengdu's new energy vehicle industry," said Wang Weikun, deputy general manager of Chengdu International Railway Service. He said the new energy vehicles come from brands such as BYD and Geely.

Chen Youfu, manager of Chengdu Zhengye Jixiang Parallel Automobile Sales, a dealer that exports new energy vehicles, said: "In the past, we exported new energy vehicles by sea or road, but now they're transported by China-Europe trains at our doorstep and the cycle has been effectively shortened. It improves the capital turnover rate and reduces the capital cost of enterprises."

The China-Europe (Chengdu) Railway Express has achieved full coverage of the automobile trade such as parallel automobile import, second-hand car export, new energy vehicle export and the trade of medium-standard car and spare parts.

Data show that in 2022, the import and export of complete vehicles at Chengdu International Railway Port exceeded 8,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 86 percent.

With increasing demand for cross-border logistics and international transit between Sichuan and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Chengdu has accelerated the construction of its southbound channel.

In April 2022, the city launched the China-Vietnam outbound train, shortening the transportation time of goods from Chengdu to Vietnam by two to three days.

In December, Chengdu launched the first China-Laos international train transport by the new Chengdu-Kunming Railway. The new railway connects the China-Europe Railway Express in the north and the Pan-Asian railway network in the south and travels directly to the hinterland of ASEAN countries.

Air freight corridor

While expanding the land Silk Road, Chengdu has opened up an air freight corridor, continuously narrowing its distance to the outside world and attracting traffic as a gateway hub.

The freight route from Chengdu to Latin America has been popular during the past three months.

On Feb 9, a Boeing 747-8F all-cargo plane that took off from Santiago, Chile landed at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport with a full load of about 120 metric tons of Chilean prunes.

It marked the first time that Chengdu had imported Chilean prunes through its own port.

As a trader of prunes, a senior executive from Joy Wing Mau, a major fruit supplier said that it takes 65 hours at least from picking, precooling, packaging and air transportation for these fresh prunes to arrive in Chengdu.

In November, the Chengdu-Brussels-Saint Paul international cargo route was opened. From Nov 24, nearly 2,000 tons of Chilean cherries entered the Chinese market through this route via two charter flights per week.

The positive market response to Chilean cherries has sweetened companies' outlook on the products. And after Chilean cherries were dropped from the market, Joy Wing Mau set its sights on Chilean prunes.

"In addition to cherries and prunes, we also hope to import more high-quality South American fruits through charter flights in the future," the executive said. He added that he hopes to use Chengdu's air trade corridor to transport Latin American products as quickly as possible.

In 2022, Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport expanded its cargo capacity and opened six international cargo routes including Saint Paul, with a total of 30 routes. International and regional cargo and mail throughput reached 221,000 tons, achieving a growth of 53.7 percent against the trend. Of them, the number of stable international scheduled cargo routes has increased to 21 and a network of backbone cargo routes to Europe, North America and Asia has essentially been formed.

On the basis of the continuous capacity expansion of Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, the Tianfu International Airport will enhance the coverage of Chengdu's route network. Tianfu International Airport is the largest civil transport hub planned and constructed in China during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-21). It was put into operation in June 2021, making Chengdu the third city on the Chinese mainland to have dual international airports after Beijing and Shanghai.

On Jan 17, the Chengdu aviation port of the Tianfu International Airport was opened to the outside world and passed a national on-site inspection.

As Chengdu enters the era of "dual airports", more aviation logistics giants have accelerated the pace of layout in Chengdu.

Since 2022, high-energy air cargo projects such as SF Airlines Western China Headquarters, DHL Southwest International Airlines Express Transfer Center and Apex Regional Headquarters have signed contracts and settled down in the city.