Lifeline made of iron in western China

On the other side of Xinjin county from Li's eatery, old men sit and smoke cigarettes out the front of roadside restaurants, watching the traffic go by with slow and silent regard.

Wang Kexin, 65, does not have the time to join them. Here in the northern part of the county, a new station on a different branch of the line opened a month ago, and her electronic components manufacturing business is doing very nicely.

Before the coming of the train, Wang says, it took seven days to transport goods by road to Guangdong, about 1,700 kilometers to the south, where many of her domestic customers are. With the train it now takes one day.

Faster delivery

Instead of a long trip by road to the ports of the east, followed by a lengthy voyage on a container ship, the product she makes for export is now taken to Chengdu by train and from there straight onto the new Chengdu-EU rail line. Instead of waiting about two months, her international customers can now expect delivery in 14 days.

"It's reducing the cost of logistics for our goods by more than 20 percent. And it's saving so much time. It's really helping our company grow."

Chen Zhongwei, director of Chengdu's logistics department, says the positive economic impact of the new railways, particularly those linking western China to the outside world, are beginning to be felt.

"Now because of the trains, from (the coastal city of) Xiamen in the southeast, it takes only two days for goods to get here. It takes one day for goods to get from Taiwan to Xiamen; and it takes 13 days for goods to get to Poland from here. So it's 16 days from Taiwan to Europe. To ship the same goods by water, it takes about two months."

There are 262 Fortune 500 companies with a presence in Chengdu, and the local statistics bureau says foreign investment in the city hit $10 billion last year.

"Because of the railway to Europe, trade between it and Chengdu has greatly improved, as has the investment environment here for European and Chinese companies," Chen says.

For local worker Zhang Changjiu the practical effect of that is a doubling of his pay and more employment opportunities.

Standing on the loading docks of a warehouse in Qingbaijiang, close to where the EU railway begins, the 44-year-old points at a six-story complex of modern buildings nearby.