The 2026 Spring Festival travel rush is in full swing. While millions of people are heading home for reunions, another "invisible" Spring Festival travel rush is unfolding intensely at Lanzhou International Land Port. This is the "starting station" of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan freight train and the "reception hall" for Chinese-made products heading to Central Asia. Today, let's unlock the secrets behind the efficient operation of this "golden passage".
Just now, Zhang Qinqin, a salesperson from Gansu Co., Ltd. operating the New Land-Sea Corridor, received a new batch of goods consignments destined for Central Asia, and she immediately began to carefully check them. Container numbers, product names, destinations, shipment tracking... She needs to align hundreds of codes before the shipment departs.
Since April 2025, the first China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan characteristic freight train has been in operation; in October of the same year, it achieved scheduled operations, with one train per week, rain or shine. From "goods waiting for trains" to "trains waiting for goods", what has been shortened is not only time, but also the psychological distance between inland areas and ports. Two kilometers away, these figures "land" as containers. Under the gantry crane, Lu Peng, the loading and unloading squad leader, is "taking roll call" for the first batch of containers today.
Lu Peng has been working on the loading and unloading frontline for 11 Spring Festivals. Every time a box is steadily placed on the truck bed, he feels at ease.
Among these 52 boxes today, there are auto parts, textiles, and small generators — 30% of which are from local enterprises in Gansu. They will depart from Lanzhou, exit the country through the Irkeshtam Port, and finally reach Hairatan, Afghanistan. The entire journey takes about a week and spans three time zones.
Numbers are the best testimony: the first train departed in April 2025, and scheduled operations began in October of the same year—taking only 6 months in between. 93 trains, 3,714 carriages, and 483 million US dollars, these are the achievements of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan freight train service in one year. From "sporadic cargo consolidation" to "full-train assembly", from "weekly trial operations" to "regular scheduled operations", Gansu has, within one year, achieved an "acceleration" in inland opening-up.
[Reporter's Note] From a power of attorney to loading and departure, from one person to a group of people, no one can reach the destination alone. When the train rumbles to set off, the whistle pierces through the morning fog of the land port — behind it are the continuous "camel bells" of the new era, lifted by countless hands, which is precisely the profound echo of the "Belt and Road Initiative" on the land of Longyuan.