Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Great Silk Road - first eastbound Polish train leaves Lodz for Chengdu

In Sunday Essay - is this the Eurasian century?, I mused about the attempts by China to rebuild the old great silk road, recreating Eurasia.

This photo shows the first Polish train leaving Lodz in Poland for Chengdu.The line has mainly been used by Chinese exporters since it opened in 2013.  Now the Poles have cleared various regulatory hurdles for Polish products, leading to the launch of a twice weekly east-bound service. Polish products on the inaugural outbound service included beer, juices, mineral water and confectionery.

I have no idea what the cost parameters are for the service as compared to, say, shipping from Australia or indeed from Poland. However, once the infrastructure is there, traders will use it, and that was one of my points.

2 comments:

My Observations said...

I am reading a book about China and the ruling dowager Cixi. Very clever woman. Many feministic comments come to mind but I will refrain. Reading the book I was surprised that China needed to import so much food. They even imported rice to feed the growing population. Cixi opened China to trade with the West, hence my admiration.

Now food from Poland, I am glad as this is important to Poland. The new president will even visit China soon. Seeing the apples on the picture makes me think that apples are going to be important in the trade, especially that Russia is now reluctant to buy our apples even if they do not have enough of their own. Another surprise to me. Apparently Polish apple have a reputation in trade and this is in a small part thanks to my father who worked with the agricultural university to improve new species.

Jim Belshaw said...

Hi AC. I haven't read that book. She had a very bad press early on, but that is being somewhat redressed now. Thought of you with the apples! Saw that the new president is planning an active visit schedule.