Another new rail-sea link has been launched connecting European traders with markets in Japan and Korea. Beijing Trans Eurasia (TE) and Bahnoperator started operating the eastbound Europe-Dalian blocktrain. From the Chinese port of Dalian, ships sail to various ports of Japan and South Korea.

The service also departs from various European cities, making this an inclusive new eastbound service. Apart from the Polish hub of Malaszewicze, the service is available from Hamburg and Duisburg in Germany, Ceska Trebova in Czech Republic and Budpaest in Hungary. In the Far East, possible destinations are Busan and Incheon in South Korea, and Tokyo and Yokohama in Japan.

Via Manzhouli-Dalian

The blocktrain arrives in the Chinese port of Dalian and runs via Manzhouli, Inner Mongolia. The total journey time is 30 days, according to Beijing Trans Eurasia (TE). This is shorter than the time a ship would take for an all-ocean journey: around 40 days.

The multimodal connection with a rail link covering the largest distance has therefore grown in popularity over the years. There are multiple ports in the Chinese coast where trains arrive and departs, and where cargo is reloaded in vessels to the Far East. Dalian is one of these ports, others are Xiamen, Qingdao and Taicang. Lately, the Russian port of Vladivostok has grown in popularity too as a transhipment hub on this multimodal corridor, avoiding the current epidemic prevention and control measures at the Chinese border.