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(Source: CGTN)

New international railway lines that are helping to connect China with Europe. The first line was put into use over six years ago. High-end products are transported from Chongqing in Southwest China to Duisburg in Germany. Our reporter Zheng Yibing looks at how laptops assembled in Chongqing are making their way to Europe's biggest economy.

This is Asia’s largest laptop assembly base in Chongqing, southwest China. Here, various types of products can be seen on the production line.

Last year, over 58 million laptops were assembled here. And, the majority were sold overseas, with about 40 percent going to Europe.

Companies in Chongqing benefit from a comprehensive transportation network. But for companies shipping to European destinations, the intercontinental railway line offers relatively fast and inexpensive shipping options.

"This train line has cut transportation time in half compared with shipping by sea, and it's about one-fifth the cost of shipping by air, now that the number of freight trains has increased. This has helped reduce shipping costs," Alan Lo, Sr. Finance maanger with Inventec (Chongqing) Corporation, said.

Trains are loaded with containers filled with laptops and other high-end products. They will cover a distance of over 11,000 kilometers, as they cross the Eurasian continent, before finally reaching their final destination in Duisburg, Germany.

Countries along the route are working together to ensure the line runs smoothly.

"A one-card-for-all system has been established. That makes it easy to release cargo during customs clearance checks in all of the countries along the railway line," Yang Liqiong, deputy director of Chongqing Economic & IT Commission, said.

So far, over 260 global companies have set up workshops in Chongqing, and an increasing number of products built here are shipped by train to Europe, including: vehicles, machinery, clothes, and coffee produced and processed in China. Changes are happening.

"Now in a typical week, there are about nine trains leaving for Europe, and five to six trains coming back to Chongqing, compared with just one train at the very beginning," Yang said.

A total of 500 freight trains are expected to ship goods along the line in 2017.

This freight train is on its way to Europe. It will arrive in Germany in about two weeks’ time. And once it gets there, these Chinese goods will be distributed to customers at a cheaper cost than before.