Step aside, Trans-Siberian Railway. Your puny 9,289-kilometer jaunt from Moscow to Vladivostok means nothing to us now.
Last week, a freight train from Yiwu, Zhejiang's global manufacturing Mecca, set out for Madrid on what's now officially the longest train journey in the world.
The train is currently still trudging through Xinjiang and Kazakhstan before it makes its way to the Spanish capital via Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany and France. The inaugural run on the Yiwu-Madrid line is expected to reach its destination on December 9, 21 days after its departure.
In total, the journey from the Yangtze Delta to the Iberian Peninsula covers 9,977 kilometers.
The project is a part of China's USD 40 billion Silk Road Fund to improve infrastructures across the Asia-Pacific region. Besides the obvious economic benefits, the initiative is also seen as a counter-balance to America's 'pivot' toward Asia.
[Image via The Washington Post]
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