Cargo goes the distance, and drivers t

For Zhong Junlan, taking the helm of a China Railway Express train is like running a relay race. “I drive to point A,” he said, “and then another driver takes over, then another, and so on, until the cargo reaches its final destination.”

It is a race he has been running since 2013, when he was chosen to drive the first leg of the inaugural cross-border freight service from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, to Lodz in Poland.

The journey to Guangyuan, 360 kilometers up the track, takes on average more than five hours, he said. From there, about 50 drivers will steer the cargo in shifts the rest of the way, some 9,466 km, over about 12 days.

For safety reasons, drivers in China are restricted from working for more than six hours at a time. Zhong said if a CR Express train is scheduled to pass through Guangyuan in the opposite direction within a day or so, he will drive that back to Chengdu. If not, he will take a day off and return to base for his next assignment.

Although the 33-year-old is a veteran in starting the race, he has never seen the finish line.

“It’s a pity that I’ve never been to Alashankou,” he said, referring to the city i n the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region where the train crosses the border into Kazakhstan, “or to Lodz, for that matter.”

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CHEN JIAN / FOR CH H The CR Express freight service has turned Alashankou in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region into a bustling border port.

CHEN JIAN / FOR CHINA DAILY Workers unload a car at Chengdu inland port that was shipped from Nuremberg in Germany using a China Railway Express freight service.