'Silk Road' train from China reaches London

CA
Search




9+



Suggested: New East Africa train link cuts travel time by 50 percent


1:00 / 2:13
Al Jazeera is funded in whole or in part by the Qatari government. Wikipedia

'Silk Road' train from China reaches London
171,159 views•Jan 18, 2017

927

61

SHARE

SAVE


Al Jazeera English
4.07M subscribers

A train full of Chinese goods has arrived in London after making a trip halfway across the world.

This is the first freight train from China's Zhejiang province to Britain and it is hoped it will be the start of a new trade route from China, emulating the ancient Silk Road of more than 2,000 years ago.

Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego reports from London.

- Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe
- Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish
- Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera
- Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/
Category
News & Politics
252 Comments
Auggie Giuseppe
Add a public comment...
Alphonse Mephesto
Alphonse Mephesto
2 years ago
This is a symbolic end of The British Empire,

53


ColinsCity
ColinsCity
2 years ago
I've always wanted the Silk Road to re-start, it's great that it has :D

62


Sips of Hell
Sips of Hell
2 years ago
THIS IS WHY THERE NEED TO BE WORLD PEACE SO COOL STUFF LIKE THIS IS POSSIBLE

15


Stu Wilkes
Stu Wilkes
2 years ago
I didn't realise the rail system was that well interconnected so as to be able to take a trip from China all the way to the UK.

23


Bob King
Bob King
2 years ago (edited)
This freight train can be accelerated to as much as 7 days(now costs 18 days) from Yiwu to London in the future, which will give railway tremendous advantage compared to shipping by sea or air.
Shipping by air costs lots of money and have limited capacity, while shipping by sea costs much more time, usually it takes more than one month from China's Yiwu to London by ship, while railways only takes 15 days, besides, the time costs by railways can be minimized to 7 days in the future, that means more and more fresh food can be transported by train instead of ship in an affordable price, because shipping by air costs a lot for fresh food and shipping by sea may make fresh food decay.

25


tfylhk
tfylhk
2 years ago
USA is looking for war and China is looking for trade

142


Deep Mukhia
Deep Mukhia
2 years ago
A new trend is set. Everyone will follow. Great achievement... 👍👏👏

14


Barron Reed
Barron Reed
2 years ago
I am hoping more railroad lines will be opened and there is going to be a trans-Eurasia tour from China to London.  Please make this happen.

13


Ahmed SalahuDiin
Ahmed SalahuDiin
2 years ago
Waaw, what a beautiful moving forward, China is building railways, roads and bridges to connect the world, while USA is destroying countries, and electing wall builder to disconnect their neighbor country, and electing a president who hates the other worlds people completely.

Wonderful and good Job China, waiting from you more and more positive ways of moving forward, and making world better place to live in. Thanks

183


Dazzalinco1
Dazzalinco1
2 years ago
Trump backing down on trading with foreign nations and china jumping in and filling those spots.

8


鈴木たかし
鈴木たかし
2 years ago
It seems that UK relationship with China is really better than US relationship
UK  expressed AIIB firstly in Europe...

6


Baskaran Lakhsmi
Baskaran Lakhsmi
2 years ago
london to china silk route mega chinese. Hats off to chinese.

29


Butt Hurt
Butt Hurt
1 year ago
costs 5x cheaper to just send it on a boat

4


Lakshmi Narayana
Lakshmi Narayana
2 years ago
GOOD, IN FUTURE WE CAN EXPECT PASSENGERS TRAIN ALSO . THIS IS VERY GOOD FOR OUR COUNTRY.

7


JIN Jeremy
JIN Jeremy
2 years ago
世界岛逐渐形成，中华必崛起！

10


ԋαɳʂ ωolʇ
ԋαɳʂ ωolʇ
2 years ago
this is awesome, neighbour countrys of china should be aloud to use this route too

10


nancy wang
nancy wang
2 years ago
it too 18 days from china far east to London ! my god, this route is so much shorter then my air parcel I sent to  Italy which took almost 30 days  normal post.

4


Unknown_User
Unknown_User
2 years ago
0:01 that's where I live.

4


b站搬运工 bilibili
b站搬运工 bilibili
2 years ago
i want to buy European goods in taobao

6


Umberto Fournier
Umberto Fournier
2 years ago
simply amazing.

3


Ahasan Habib
Ahasan Habib
2 years ago
good Future for all

4


Max z
Max z
2 years ago
when trump wants to build walls and increase the tax , china is building road and expand trade

6


GEES44DC
GEES44DC
2 years ago
Modern rail freight in action, she says, about the 20 car long train. lol.

1


lisa
lisa
2 years ago
OMG！！CHINA—London？real？



chickenfarm09
chickenfarm09
6 months ago
They need more trains going! Hopefully this will work out very well!



Elijah Pisani
Elijah Pisani
2 years ago
barking (where the train is) is no where near the east end of london, it is in the suburbs despite what they say



Prequels better than Sequels
Prequels better than Sequels
2 years ago
looking beyond eyropean union for trade? the train passes through EU -__-

1


A C
A C
2 years ago
Any chance of hooking some carriages onto it? That’d one amazing trip.

1


mascung lumajang
mascung lumajang
2 years ago
ii itt,China Will be the Champion ini their grade for trading?? in universe

1


stomy bugsy
stomy bugsy
1 year ago
Something very interesting to invest in!



IMARK MOSAIC
IMARK MOSAIC
2 years ago
Hope to export our mosaic tile by this train sooon



kurtilein3
kurtilein3
2 years ago
This makes sense, freight trains are incredibly efficient even if they use diesel fuel. The energy goes into accelerating the train, and then it just rolls with little resistance. All the modern ones are hybrid anyway, in fossil fuel mode they use gas turbines to turn the energy from the burning fuel into torque on an electric generator. The wheels are then driven with electricity. Whenever there is a grid and an overhead power supply, it switches to electric drive, and braking energy is absorbed by the motors, which can also act as generators, and fed back into the grid.

Its frighteningly efficient. With a grid, they behave like fully electric cars with full braking recuperation. Without a grid, they use fossil fuels as a range extender, also some braking recuperation, and they use more efficient gas turbines instead of an internal combustion engine. Combine that with very low friction, on rails.

14


Rudy Alfonsus
Rudy Alfonsus
1 year ago
imagine how much they cut the cost of trade between them.



i n
i n
2 years ago
I wanna go on a journey in the train

2


ojideagu
ojideagu
1 year ago
The moment you realise you left the Stove on at home



Ben noneofyourbeeswax
Ben noneofyourbeeswax
2 years ago
China actually pays, just look at the africa-china summit.
meanwhile amerikkka is on it's own facist path.

10


Kerro Guano
Kerro Guano
1 year ago
Were there any gauge conversion during the trip?



Ho Alex
Ho Alex
2 years ago
Just beginning



yalei pang
yalei pang
2 years ago
世界只有合作才能有更加美好的明天



yalei pang
yalei pang
2 years ago
世界只有合作才能有更加美好的明天



RightWingAmericanDoggo
RightWingAmericanDoggo
2 years ago
China freight brought to you by deutsche Bahn



Jesse James
Jesse James
2 years ago
Now is easier to buy stuffs from Europe. Yay



John Gardner
John Gardner
2 years ago
And how was that electric locomotive moving when there are no overhead wires or third rail?

1


Softy Pusheen
Softy Pusheen
1 year ago
wow im from china and im at london now



Jasiek Romaniewski
Jasiek Romaniewski
2 years ago
I wonder how adept this train must be to dealing with different track widths? I believe that the types of rails would change a bit over such a journey.

1


Net Surfer
Net Surfer
5 months ago
The American Bully will be dumped hard!

2


John Gunner
John Gunner
1 year ago
I’m gonna train surf to China 🇨🇳



Bidrohi Das
Bidrohi Das
1 year ago
Well they forgot to mention it has 50% subsidy from Chinese govt. Now when with subsidy it's get 50% cheaper than air price .. without subsidy it's equal to air transport ..
Al-Jazeera please feed full news to people. Oh sorry I forgot you need Chinese money too. Thanks

1


Anh Trieu
Anh Trieu
3 months ago
Wouldn’t hurt to include a passenger car in there. I would certainly pay to sit on a train for 18 days.



vaiouser
vaiouser
2 years ago
what about security?



Miguel Silva
Miguel Silva
2 years ago
UK was really exploiting other countries not trading with them. ohh it is a DB train!!!! silly Brits



Thepchai Poo
Thepchai Poo
2 years ago (edited)
One Belt, One Road or the Belt and Road Initiative is a development strategy
and framework, proposed by Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping that focuses
on connectivity and cooperation among countries primarily between the
People's Republic of China and the rest of Eurasia, which consists of two main
components, the land-based "Silk Road Economic Belt" and oceangoing
"Maritime Silk Road". The strategy underlines China's push to take a bigger role
in global affairs, and its need for priority capacity cooperation in areas such as
steel manufacturing.
This is the land route of The Economic Belt of The Silk Road. It is the
alternative to 21 st Century Maritime Silk Road.



newsgetsold
newsgetsold
8 months ago (edited)
2 years on and how is this going?   Looks like the Suez Canal still carries more more freight between Europe and China than any rail service?

Maybe DHL alone carries more air freight between Europe and China than any train service?!?



Xinmin Li
Xinmin Li
2 years ago
Trade >>>> War!

11


Alfred Shaw
Alfred Shaw
2 years ago
One hundred years ago, you send your fleet to my home, knocked on the door and sold drugs, now its my turn.

10


Iamtop
Iamtop
2 years ago (edited)
Well that's all well and good but given that those tracks go through the UE, maybe don't count on it just yet... Boats might be even more cheap once Brexit happens.

2


LINES TELECOM sellers of landline telephones
LINES TELECOM sellers of landline telephones
1 year ago
Who is waiting for a trade train between Shenzhen And Mumbai? I dream CHINA-INDIA EVERYDAY TRADE TRAIN

1


soufianenz
soufianenz
2 years ago (edited)
the chinese chould do from europe to africa also, through a bride between Spain and Morocco

1


sion8
sion8
2 years ago
That's rather impressive for rail travel. I wonder how possible for an underground tunnel between the Bering strait? So that a service between East Asia and North America could happen.

1


Temi Topson
Temi Topson
2 years ago (edited)
better I move to China to export to online buyers in Europe  taking opportunity of this new rail lines . Chinese are thinking forwards future of their people is secured .

67


Where we gonna be next