Wuhan-Lyon train heralds trade boom

LYON, France - After traveling about 10,000 kilometers across the Eurasian continent in about 18 days, a freight train from Central China's Wuhan city arrived on a March morning at a rail terminal in Venissieux, south of the French city of Lyon, with its containers full of sports clothes, electronic goods and items for a cultural exposition.

Back in the 16th century, Lyon was the terminus in Western Europe of the ancient Silk Road, a path connecting the East and the West and facilitating the exchange of products, innovative techniques, doctrines and cultures.

Today, dubbed the "caravans of steel camels", the China-Europe Railway Express carries new opportunities to Europe and injects new impetus into Sino-French trade, whose volume exceeded $60 billion in 2018.