January 9, 2008 (LPAC) -- Today, with great fanfare, a large container train left Beijing on its way to Hamburg, traveling through Mongolia, Russia, Belarus, Poland to Germany. This was the “pilot train'' of the Eurasian Continental Landbridge. The train was highly decorated in Chinese style, and the send-off included railway officials from the six countries along the route.

The Chinese television coverage showed them at the station in front of a large railroad map of the Eurasian line, very similar to that published in the 1997 EIR report on the subject, with the caption “Sketch Map of Eurasian Landbridge Corridor” printed in Russian, English, and Chinese. “The train will travel 9,800 kilometers through six countries,” the CCTV commentator told viewers. “The train will take 18 days. The same trip would take almost 40 days by container ship.” “This can be seen as a breakthrough in our cooperation,” said Zheng Mingli, the chairman of the China Container Transportation Company. “Today railway officials from six countries are here to witness this event. This is very important for the development of the Asia-Europe continental bridge. This means of transportation has great potential for the countries involved.” A Polish railway official was also interviewed, who expressed the wish that this “pilot train” would be the beginning of a permanent connection to Europe. The commentator noted that the rail connection will take a much greater chunk of the trade between China and the EU.

Click here for an archive of recent developments of the Eurasian Landbridge.