The train from Yiwu on the Chinese coast to Madrid in Spain carried a mere 30 containers on its three-week 8,111-mile maiden journey — a paltry amount compared with the up to 18,000 boxes the biggest ships can haul on the same route.
But slightly more ominously, the railway has been dubbed the “21st-century Silk Road”. A year earlier, China’s president Xin Jinping announced plans to develop a modern Silk Road Economic Belt of rail, road and pipelines across the ancient caravan route — and last November he added a $40bn fund to finance it.
