Posted on 01/01/2015 8:20:15 PM PST by Lorianne
November 18, 2014: it’s a day that should live forever in history. On that day, in the city of Yiwu in China’s Zhejiang province, 300 kilometers south of Shanghai, the first train carrying 82 containers of export goods weighing more than 1,000 tons left a massive warehouse complex heading for Madrid. It arrived on December 9th.
Welcome to the new trans-Eurasia choo-choo train. At over 13,000 kilometers, it will regularly traverse the longest freight train route in the world, 40% farther than the legendary Trans-Siberian Railway. Its cargo will cross China from East to West, then Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, France, and finally Spain.
You may not have the faintest idea where Yiwu is, but businessmen plying their trades across Eurasia, especially from the Arab world, are already hooked on the city “where amazing happens!” We’re talking about the largest wholesale center for small-sized consumer goods — from clothes to toys — possibly anywhere on Earth.
The Yiwu-Madrid route across Eurasia represents the beginning of a set of game-changing developments. It will be an efficient logistics channel of incredible length. It will represent geopolitics with a human touch, knitting together small traders and huge markets across a vast landmass. It’s already a graphic example of Eurasian integration on the go. And most of all, it’s the first building block on China’s “New Silk Road,” conceivably the project of the new century and undoubtedly the greatest trade story in the world for the next decade.
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
I agree. If they can really develop high speed rail as an economical way to move cargo from China to Europe, we would see a major shift in how goods are moved.
Bulk cargoes such as oil and grain not so much but consumer electronics much more so.
I do understand there has been some experimenting with containers to haul grain.
“I have been brooding on these threads for some time now about a potential Berlin/Moscow/Beijing axis . . . “
You may be interested in reading this lengthy essay, about the ugly facts surrounding the mess in the Ukraine. It offers a very thorough examination of the events of 2014:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-31/guest-post-2014-russian-viewpoint
Turns out they exist...but we didn't build them.
China now has the biggest export machine on planet Earth.
America needs to support America.
Not China.
Just saying. We have sent jobs to China, for over one entire generation, and we’ve gone totally over the top, since the year 2000.
China is now a larger exporter, than America.
America meanwhile, just passed 18 trillion dollars of debt.
“Nothing beats the road or train.”
For oil, the pipeline has to beat them all. Otherwise, I am in agreement.
“...Except Amtrak.”
In my college days I did the NY-Dallas / Dallas-NY Amtrak. One of the advantages of Amtrak was the “bar on wheels.” Back then states’ drinking ages varied - made it interesting at times as who got served. Left one’s luggage back at some seat where one could catch zzzzz’s; no theft, no “unattended baggage” crap. Freedom in America!
Salon is confused. The train is not highspeed rail but long distance rail.
Salon is the home of refugee journalists that lost their jobs elsewhere.
The formal term is journodetritus
Apology accepted. Yours, however, is the more important point and remains valid: the development of reliable an timely Trans-Eurasian train service can be expected:
1. To enhance trade between the ChiComms and Europe.
2. And, thus, extend their influence and relations with Europe.
3. Lending to the possible creation of a Beijing-Moscow-Berlin axis that would be antithetical to US interests.
Personally, I would imagine that the current regime has no concept concerning such developments. And, if they do, they are cheering it...
It is frightening how many of my neighbors so uncritically accept the line of propaganda set forth in this article cited by Daffy.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-31/guest-post-2014-russian-viewpoint
Today, another article cites the growing number of German firms complaining about choking off of their exports to Russia. One of my neighbors has been adamant about that for some time now and they don’t mind blaming America. This is not to say that it is wrong to impose sanctions on Russia, it is to say that we are not doing a good job selling America’s position.
God knows what Obama’s policy respecting Ukraine is. It is as incoherent as his policy everywhere else abroad. Any policy which is not centered around a clear definition of America’s national interest is folly. There is no evidence that Obama ever has America’s security or national interests in his ken. Indeed, there is evidence to the contrary as you point out that he seeks to destroy America as a bulwark of liberty.
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