On the morning of March 16, a flight carrying 24 tourists from Luxembourg landed at Xinzheng International Airport in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province.

It was the first tour group from the European country after the Zhengzhou-Luxembourg direct passenger route was officially launched on Dec 21, 2023. The passengers received a warm welcome upon arrival at the airport.

"It's my second time in China, but the first time to be here in Henan. The direct flight is the fastest and easiest way for us," said tourist Kremer Romain. "I'm really looking forward to the journey in China," he added.

Zhan Yong, chairman of Schengen Travel, which organized the group tour, said that the direct passenger flight is not only the first one between China and Luxembourg but the first from Luxembourg to Asia.

"It has shortened the travel time, promoting cultural communication and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries," Zhan said.

As a vital inland city on the Belt and Road route, Zhengzhou has made sustained efforts to build the "air silk road" in recent years and the Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone has become a center for modern manufacturing, local officials said.

So far, the Xinzheng airport has hosted 234 passenger routes and 49 freight routes, connecting the city with more than 20 countries and regions worldwide. Its passenger throughput exceeded 25.35 million in 2023, while the annual cargo and mail throughput reached 608,000 metric tons in 2023, ranking sixth among Chinese airports, according to official data.

In addition to the "air silk road", the provincial capital is building another three "silk roads" across rail, sea and online platforms, which serve as a key driver for its economic development.

The year 2023 marked the 10th anniversary of the China-Europe Railway Express (Zhengzhou). By September, it had made more than 8,000 train trips and formed a cargo service network spanning about 140 cities across 40 countries.

Compared with sea transport, the freight train service is more efficient, more reliable and less affected by the weather, said Kong Weidong, general manager of the Zhengzhou branch of a Shanghai-based freight forwarding company.

"It has received wide recognition from our European customers," he said, adding that the service has been improved over the past few years, with a tracking system, cold-chain carriages and other customized carriages on offer.

Previously, the freight trains mainly transported food, clothing and small commodities. Now a growing number of high-end products, including homemade new energy vehicles, are exported to overseas markets by the railway, said Gao Fei, head of Putian freight railway station in Zhengzhou, where all such trains depart the city.

"We have seen the 'land silk road' get busier, and our country become stronger," Gao said.

In collaboration with port cities such as Tianjin, Qingdao in Shandong province and Lianyungang in Jiangsu province, Zhengzhou has established multiple sea-rail intermodal transport routes, enhancing its connectivity with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

In 2023, 40,000 twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, of containers were shipped through this line, up 151 percent year-on-year, according to the city government.

Online Silk Road

Wandering around the Zhongdamen Bonded Commodity O2O Shopping Center in the Zhengzhou Economic-Technological Development Zone, visitors are wowed with how many different imported goods there are.

"For consumers, buying overseas products here is as easy as at a domestic supermarket. The only difference is they need to wait for about three minutes to complete the customs clearance process," said Liu Kezhen, manager of the public relations department from the center's operating company.

Consumers who cannot come in person can place orders online through a WeChat mini program and receive their parcels within a few days, she said.

The new cross-border retail model has been promoted to many cities across the country, including Shenyang in Liaoning province and Yinchuan in Ningxia Hui autonomous region, according to Liu.

As one of the first national comprehensive pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce, Zhengzhou has led the country in institutional innovation and made remarkable achievements, local officials said.

These not only helped advance the industry's high-quality development, but gave a boost to the inland city's opening-up, local officials said.

In 2023, Zhengzhou recorded a cross-border e-commerce trade volume of 125 billion yuan ($17.32 billion), representing a year-on-year increase of 10 percent.

Attracted by the thriving "online silk road", foreign e-commerce giants including Amazon and Google have made investments in Zhengzhou. Meanwhile, local e-commerce companies have achieved leapfrog growth.

Songmics Home, a furniture maker in Zhengzhou, went public at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in June 2023, becoming the first listed cross-border e-commerce company from Henan province.

At the end of 2023, the city released a slew of favorable policies for the cross-border e-commerce industry, which included different financial rewards for activities, industrial parks, enterprises and platforms.

According to its development plan (2021-25) for an "online silk road", Zhengzhou will have 10 cross-border e-commerce industrial parks, each worth at least 10 billion yuan, while its cross-border e-commerce trade volume will exceed 140 billion yuan.

zhanglinwan@chinadaily.com.cn