A whistle sounded and the train of “Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe” International Rail Freight Line (hereinafter referred to as “Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe” Line) loaded with such products “Made in Jilin” as auto parts, electronic products and graphite electrodes left the Xinglong Railway Port of Changchun City for Europe Saturday night on November 16, 2019. In the course of nearly 10,000 kilometers, the international freight train will pass through Ural Mountains and Lake Baikal. It is a long distance of transportation confronted with big differences of temperatures and complicated conditions. How to ensure a safe arrival of goods? 

“In addition to a full chain of high-quality services, we also have a ‘secret weapon’ providing a strong support for a fast customs clearance and a whole-process supervision to make the internet of things visible and avoid blind spots in the control of logistics along the way,” said Wang Yue, President of Changchun International Land Port Development Co., Ltd. The “secret weapon” he mentioned is nothing but a kind of technologically renovated product, global intelligent monitoring system for containers. 

New Mode of “Aerospace Technology plus Logistics” Opened 

“The global intelligent monitoring system for containers was launched in January this year. We all call it ‘Cargo Dog’,” said Wang Yue, adding, “The system is a new product jointly developed by Changchun international Land Port Development Co., Ltd. and China Aerospace Science and Technology Group. Based on the Beidou Satellite Technology, it adopts the new mode of “Aerospace Technology plus Logistics” to realize a whole process of e-monitoring on all containers, highlighting such functions as three-frequency positioning, temperature and humidity monitoring, three-axis collision degree monitoring and abnormal intrusion alarm. 

“The 'Cargo Dot’ makes Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe Line more intelligent,” Wang Yue said “It alarms for the deviation of preset line, the impact of preset threshold, and the change of preset temperature and humidity. As long as the software is installed on smart devices such as mobile phones, the system can provide a real-time monitoring of containers and a real-time observation of remote transportation. Unlike the traditional mode, it is very convenient and able to eliminate the blind spots along the way.”  

“The cargos including 82 Audi Q8 arrived Wednesday night on October 16 were served by the ‘Cargo Dog’,” said the office staff of Xinglong Comprehensive Bonded Area, who indicated that such system had been installed in more than 100 containers of “Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe” Line. The Beidou Satellite Positioning provides tracking of all containers without being bothered by time difference. 

The system made its debut for a global promotion at the China International Import Expo held in Shanghai on November 7 this year. Wang Yue said: “The key target of the promotion is the railway sectors of all major countries included in the “Belt and Road” Initiative. In addition, such international companies as Porsche have also indicated that they would purchase the service when exporting to the Chinese market. 

Tailor-made Refined Services Explored  

“Our cooperation with the line just got started this year. We chose it not only because it is two weeks faster than sea transportation but also because its service is good. The door-to-door mode is so convenient,” said Sun Jingxin, Office Director of Changchun Delin Wood Industry Co., Ltd., adding, “If shipped by sea, various port fees will have to be charged after arrival. The Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe Line provides direct customs clearance, claim of goods and home delivery service.” The Changchun Delin Wood Industry Co., Ltd. is an export processing enterprise in the enclosed network of Xinglong Comprehensive Bonded Area. Its solid wood composite floors are exported to Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden and other countries. In each and every month of this year, the company has wood floors worth 100,000 euros transported by the line from Changchun to Hamburg Port, Germany. 

Compared with most domestic “station-to-station” service providers, “Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe” Line provides customers with efficient and convenient “door-to-door” service. It is equivalent to a mode of door-to-door pickup and delivery of goods, which is still a new initiative compared with the service providers of China-Europe cargo trains.  

After several years of operations, “Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe” Line has accumulated a large number of data and experience, and been continuing exploring tailor-made refined services. On October 29, a batch of red wine arrived at the port. In order to ensure the quality, “Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe” Line added thermal insulation bags to the containers. Temperature changes make subtle changes to the taste of wine. The effort of using heat preservation bags can better ensure the taste and quality of the red wine from Europe while preventing the wine from being made stratified by low temperature. 

“When transporting imported vehicles, we adopt an innovative way of using integrated pallets for containers. It only takes more than ten minutes to have the vehicle fixed on the pallet, which is half an hour less than the original unpacking in the container,” said Wang Yue. 

Foreign Trade Pattern and Industrial Layout of Changchun City Changed  

All kinds of explorations of refined services make “Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe” Line more competitive. It has now covered such places as Northeast China’s three provinces, Bohai Sea Region, North China, and Japan, ROK and other Northeast Asian countries. More and more international goods are also connected to “Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe” Line through multimodal transport to complete international transportation and transshipment. Volvo, Huawei, Colgate, Samsung and other world-famous enterprises have already become the customers of “Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe” Line. 

Avocado oil, flour, beer, soybean oil and red wine imported from abroad are available at the commodity exhibition and trading center of Xinglong Comprehensive Bonded Area. During the golden week of National Day, a large number of citizens were attracted to the center by promotional activities. On October 17, the materials paved at the site for the Aviation Opening Day to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Air Force were transported by “Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe” Line. On October 27, the port welcomed a batch of snow gears for competition and civil use purposes which were transported from Europe for the demand of ice and snow economy of Jilin Province…. More and more foreign high-quality products come into the vision and life of Changchun’s citizens. And an increasing number of products “made in China”, “made in Jilin” and “made in Changchun” are also going out of the country due to the shortened transportation time and reduced cost made possible by “Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe” Line. Insiders say more than 1390 types of goods from the sources of 17 domestic provinces, cities and regions are on the list of customers of “Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe” Line. It has initially formed the multimodal transport center in Northeast Aisa, which is of great influence in the national multimodal transport and China-Europe rail cargo system. 

According to the January-October statistics, “Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe” carried 8424 TEUs of goods worth approximately RMB3.15 billion, an increase of 12.5% year on year. Among them, Jilin’s local cargos accounts for 4379 TEUs, a ratio of 51.9%. “Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe” Line has brought an end to the situation that imports to Changchun City and even Jilin Province can only rely on coastal border and airport ports, thereby becoming a new path for Changchun City to get actively integrated into the “Belt and Road” Initiative, develop an export-oriented economy and build up a regional central city in East Asia. 

“Over the past years, Jilin’s automobiles, auto parts, electronic products, floors, clothing, shoes and hats, home appliances, handicrafts, machineries and daily necessities have been continuously transported to Europe through the line, with an average of two outbound trains per week and six inbound trains per month. The goods sent along the line to Europe are more diversified. According to Cui Lina, Deputy General Manager of China-Europe Train Business Department of Changchun International Land Port Development Co., Ltd., the small handicrafts made in Jilin are very popular in the European market. “In the first half year alone, more than ten TEUs of Christmas trees made in Shulan City were transported.” 

“In Changchun, the line is not an isolated operator but a beneficiary of the perfect platform functions and industrial projects of Xinglong Comprehensive Bonded Area. The breakthroughs in breaking institutional barriers in particular have added new vitality to the development of “Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe” Line. The operation and management mode of “one team, two tablets” is now being implemented in the economic development zone and the comprehensive bonded area. Most China-Europe trains are operated by state-owned enterprises or led by state-owned enterprises, while the economic development zone has established an innovative mode of “platform built by the government, operated by a private enterprise, market-oriented operation”. Taking the construction of railway port infrastructure as the starting point, the economic development zone has the “steering wheel” operated by a private enterprise with strong operation abilities and extensive customer resources in the field of international logistics. In addition to this, a province-city-zone working linkage mechanism to provide “nanny” service for “Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe” Line has been established. The Administrative Committee of Xinglong Comprehensive Bonded Area has set up a special service group and opened “Enterprise Service Day” and “Customs Inspection Service Day", served by designated staff members to coordinate and solve the problems in time as an effort to open the channel of “service providing in the last kilometer”. 

Moreover, the economic development zone has taken the lead in building cross-border e-commerce in the whole province, opening up domestic and foreign markets, and forming a two-way development pattern driven by imports and exports. Today, the cross-border e-commerce business of Xinglong Comprehensive Bonded Area has spread to 190 countries and regions. The export volume ranks in the leading position nationwide. With this, Changchun has also been approved as a comprehensive cross-border e-commerce pilot area by the state, and has become another important core node city for the development of cross-border e-commerce in China. a list of famous cross-border e-commerce enterprises including Alibaba OneTouch, SF E-commerce Industrial Park and vip.com have so far settled in Xinglong Comprehensive Bonded Area, which in turn has facilitated the congregation of advantageous industries. All these have provided more functional support for the rapid development of “Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe” Line. 

In addition, such port functions as railway, import of entire vehicles, meats and fresh frozen aquatic products have been launched one after another, which has also provided a comprehensive, three-dimensional and full-coverage system support for the future development of “Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe” Line.  

The normalization of “Changchun-Hunchun-Europe” is underway. The two lines are becoming two flying wings for the opening up and development and the construction of “Belt and Road” Initiative.