# The world's longest train journey now begins in China



## CHamilton (Nov 24, 2014)

the_traveler's next trip!

Map: The world’s longest train journey now begins in China








(The Washington Post)



> On Nov. 18, an 82-container freight train left the eastern Chinese industrial city of Yiwu. It was embarking on a landmark journey that is supposed to end 21 days later, in December, in Madrid. The distance the train covers — more than 6,200 miles — marks the longest route taken by a freight train, longer still than Russia's famed Trans-Siberian Railway, as the map above shows.


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## Anderson (Nov 24, 2014)

For a while the rumblings have been that the Chinese want to run direct passenger service to Europe as well, though that was also a "thing" when they were dropping HSR track miles by the thousands.


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## oregon pioneer (Nov 24, 2014)

Wouldn't that be a very special trip!


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## Guest (Jan 19, 2015)

I found this article http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/orient-express-china-s-grand-plan-for-a-new-silk-road-1.2913097



> Analysis: Orient express, China's grand plan for a New Silk Road
> 
> High-speed trains, high-tech ports, China's new trade network is vast, fast and hugely ambitious


at CBC and thought of this thread.



> "A whirlwind," "Win-win," "The new normal." China's slogans have clearly had a facelift since the time when the best on offer was "Socialism is good."
> 
> So has the country's foreign policy.





> After decades of hurtling construction and development at home, China is now planning, funding, building, or helping to build, a vast network of roads, railways, tunnels, bridges, pipelines and ports across Asia and Europe.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


All while America, as a country, sits on its hands and worries that Amtrak will make us socialists.

Do you know Mandarin? :huh:


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## Swadian Hardcore (Jan 19, 2015)

Yeah, I know Mandarin. But you see, we already have a huge rail and road network. And lots of ports and airports, too. We don't have many passenger trains, that's all.


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