On 4 April a container train arrived in the German city of Duisburg 16 days after departing Chongqing in southwest China. The 10,300km trial journey was completed in about half the time that it would have taken by sea.

The DB Schenker train passed through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland on its way to Germany. Previous trial runs have followed the route north of Mongolia taken by the Trans-Siberian Railway, which is 2,000km longer, but involves fewer Customs stops.

Dr Karl-Friedrich Rausch, a board member of DB Mobility Logistics, believed the successful trial would help convince customers to support the service, adding that regular services between China and Germany could begin later this year if there is sufficient demand.