BBC: Khorgos Gateway can revive Silk Road
This new colossal dry port, which appeared in the desert between China and Kazakhstan in just seven years, could one day become a key point on the New Silk Road.
"For centuries ancient Silk Road was the main trade way connecting China and Europe. Khorgos may revive it and completely change the logistics of exchanging goods between Asia and Europe," BBC says.
In the video former CEO of Khorgos Gateway Karl Gheysen explains what a dry port is: "Instead of ships coming, we have our trains coming."
"So, the train's coming from China. We transload the containers from one train to the next train and it goes all the way to Germany, to the UK... This is really where the East is meeting the West along the Silk Road," he says.
According to the BBC, the railway will run in tandem with a transcontinental highway, linking China's Yellos Sea coast with the Baltic Sea in Russia.
One of 200 workers at Khorgos crane operator Galina Osipova says that when she arrived at Khorgos there wasn't much there, but cranes started to grow like mushrooms after the rain. "The first three cranes went up in five months I believe, very quickly," she claims.
In order to attract workforce to the Khorgos Gateway, Kazakhstan built a new town offering free accommodation, good salaries and schools.
"With this project we are connecting China to Europe by train. Is it going to be a Dubai? No, it's not going to be a Dubai with all the glamour and the glitter with the skyscrapers and things like that. Still, we are building a society on a place where there was nothing," Karl Gheysen adds proudly.
Watch the full video here