First UK-China rail freight service departs

The first rail freight service from the UK to China departed on a 7,500-mile journey from Essex on Monday, the media reported.

Thirty containers carrid British goods including whisky, soft drinks, vitamins and pharmaceuticals, the BBC reported. A DB Cargo locomotive left the DP World (global trade services firm) London Gateway rail terminal in Stanford-le-Hope for the city of Yiwu in Zhejiang province.

After going through the Channel Tunnel the train passed through seven —France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan— countries before arriving on April 27.

The service is part of China's One Belt, One Road programme of reviving the ancient Silk Road trading routes with the West dating back more than 2,000 years. DP World chief executive Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said it was a "significant trade occasion".

"DP World London Gateway, one of the UK's largest logistics hubs, is designed and developed to ensure products can be both imported and exported from the UK via ship or train in a faster, safer and more reliable way than ever before," the BBC quoted Bin Sulayem as saying on Sunday.

"We look forward to enabling and facilitating more trade between the UK, China and the whole world." The first rail freight service in the opposite direction, from China to the UK, arrived three months ago.