Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) holds talks with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw, Poland, June 20, 2016. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday concluded his state visit to Poland, the second leg of his three-nation Eurasia tour.[Special coverage]
During his stay in Poland, which started on Sunday, Xi reached agreements with his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda, on promoting economic ties within China's Belt and Road and Poland's Amber Road frameworks, as the two countries seek new markets and frontiers for their development strategies.
MODERN TRAINS ON ANCIENT TRADE ROUTES
The most visually impressive moment of the visit came on Monday afternoon, when an express freight train, with whistles blowing, slowly pulled into a cargo terminal in Warsaw. All the containers on board were painted with the uniform logo of CHINA RAILWAY Express.
Xi and Duda witnessed the moment on site, which marked the arrival of the first such trains from China along tracks that go as far as 10,000 kilometers to the coast of the west Pacific.
The new family brand consolidated the sometimes confusing China-Europe freights' brands, which ply the route of the ancient Silk Road.
China-Europe freight rail transport has become the poster boy of China-Poland economic cooperation. Nearly all such trans-continental trains from China go through Poland, which sits in the very center of Europe.
Such geological advantage has put Poland on a unique position in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, which comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road and aims at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa.
The freight trains got not only a photo opportunity in the visit. Xi, Duda and Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo all talked about the rail service on multiple occasions.
With regular service, the trains will become a facilitator in two-way trade between China and Europe.
Krzysztof Janeczko, a project manager in Hatrans Logistics company in the railway hub of Lodz, said they oversaw two freight trains from China each week, and more and more European companies are contacting them to transport goods to China via trains.
At an economic forum on Monday attended by Xi, Szydlo noted that China is the starting point of the Silk Road, while Poland is the starting point of Amber Road, which links the Baltic and the Black Sea regions.
He added that during Xi's visit, the two countries have inked cooperation agreements that could effectively link the two trading routes, bringing China closer to the doorsteps of Europe.
