Cities building rail links to Europe

Transcontinental rail operators in Chongqing municipality and Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, are also improving transport options to domestic and European clients - such things as online booking, free short-term warehouse storage and services for loads measuring less than a container. Sales offices in Warsaw, the German city of Duisburg, Shanghai and Hangzhou are planned to attract manufacturers from different industries.

A temperature-controlled freight cargo service on the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe route is planned to gain more market share in handling temperature-sensitive products such as Dutch dairy goods, German vaccine and chemical products. The move is aimed at taking on international players like DHL International GmbH and Deutsche Bahn AG.

Eager to enhance its earning ability on the rails, China's coastal cities such as Guangzhou, Lianyungang and Suzhou plan to fully open new rail routes to Europe.

"Ocean transportation has long been the main method to support China's export-dominated economy, but the nation is no longer relying on that business as heavily as it used to," said Zhu Xiaoning, a professor of traffic and transportation at Beijing Jiaotong University.

"Without fast rail solutions to Europe and well-developed ports in China, Chinese companies may face heavier competition from Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia, which have lower labor costs and enjoy shorter transit times by sea to reach Europe."

Zhu said Chinese companies should grab the transcontinental rail trade between Southeast Asia and Europe soon, as railways have already linked inland hubs with the southwestern border province of Yunnan and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.