Young Kazakhstani witnesses collaboration on new Silk Road

Kazakhstan, the world's largest landlocked country, lies thousands of kilometers from the open sea. But since 2014, when the China-Kazakhstan Logistics Cooperation Base was established in the coastal city of Lianyungang, in eastern China's Jiangsu province, the country has gained a gateway to the ocean and a vital link to global markets.

In recent years, China and Kazakhstan have continued to strengthen their "hard connectivity" through infrastructure and transport networks, with China-Europe (Central Asia) freight trains crossing Kazakhstan and linking Asia and Europe by land.

To help the Kazakh side receive logistics information more quickly and improve the efficiency of cargo transportation, nearly 10 foreign employees are stationed at the China-Kazakhstan (Lianyungang)Logistics Cooperation Base.

Among them is Bedelov Azilkhan, a young Kazakhstani who has witnessed firsthand how a logistics hub on China's eastern coast is helping bridge his landlocked homeland with the wider world.

"When I decided to come to China in 2017, it was primarily because of a career opportunity. At the time, the base was just getting launched and needed someone fluent in Chinese and familiar with Kazakhstan to facilitate communication and coordination between the two sides," he said.

"To be honest, when I first heard that I was coming to Lianyungang, I didn't know much about the city. When people think of China, the first places that often come to mind are big cities like Beijing and Shanghai. I knew China was developing rapidly, had a huge market and a long history, but Lianyungang was unfamiliar to me. I even had to look it up on a map to see where it was," Bedelov said.

Over time, he came to understand the city's importance to both China and Kazakhstan. Lianyungang serves as the eastern gateway of the New Eurasian Land Bridge and provides one of the most convenient routes for Kazakh goods to reach the Pacific.

"For me, it was a rare opportunity, a position that matched my background and experience perfectly," Bedelov said.

He began learning Chinese in college and could already hold simple conversations and communicate in everyday situations. But it was only after he started working at the logistics base that he gradually mastered the specialized terminology related to logistics and rail transportation.

Bedelov said that his career at the base has unfolded in several stages. He initially focused on translation and coordination, helping facilitate communication between the Chinese and Kazakh sides.

Later on, he took on responsibility for the day-to-day operation of freight trains and cargo shipments, before becoming involved in the base's overall management. Each stage brought new responsibilities and new things to learn, eventually leading him to his current position as the deputy general manager of China-Kazakhstan (Lianyungang)International Logistics.

"At the beginning, the biggest challenge was the language. Chinese was difficult enough, but the specialized terminology used in logistics and rail transportation was particularly challenging. I also had to adapt to differences in culture and working styles," he said.

He has spent nearly a decade working in Lianyungang, devoting himself to the project and witnessing, and helping to shape, the development of the logistics base firsthand.

"When I first arrived in 2017, the facility was still relatively small, with only a few train routes and modest cargo volumes. At the time, we mainly transported clothing, toys, and daily necessities, with our market largely focused on Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries.

"Things have changed significantly in recent years. The number of routes has steadily expanded, and we now operate six major China-Europe freight train routes, connecting Lianyungang with Europe and the five Central Asian countries," Bedelov said.

He said the types of goods the company transports have also changed significantly. Meanwhile, the mode of transportation has also evolved from being exclusively rail-based to a range of multimodal options, including sea-rail and railroad transport.

"But I think the biggest change has been the growing number of companies involved. In the early days, we mainly served a handful of companies. Now, more and more businesses from both China and Kazakhstan are using the logistics hub. It has truly grown into a major logistics corridor connecting the two countries," Bedelov added.

These changes reflect the increasingly deep and high-quality economic cooperation between China and Kazakhstan, he said.

"To me, this shows that China and Kazakhstan have developed a truly two-way and mutually beneficial partnership — one that is not just about 'selling', but also about 'buying'. That is what shared development looks like," he added.

During his years in China, one of his most important realizations has been that the country's rapid development did not happen by chance, but through sustained hard work.

Looking ahead, what he hopes to see most is the Belt and Road route "grows wider and wider", not only carrying more goods, but also opening up new opportunities for industrial cooperation, particularly in areas such as agricultural processing and new energy in Kazakhstan.