It has been 10 years since China launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), resulting in accomplished major infrastructure projects, booming trade, and flourishing cultural exchange. The changes brought about by the BRI in the past decade have been transformative. Let's take a glimpse into this down-to-earth initiative.
Jiang Liping (R), a train driver with the Africa Star Railway Operation Co., and apprentice Horace Owiti walk past a train carriage on the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway in Nairobi, Kenya on May 23. In 2017, the railway, built and operated by China Road and Bridge Corporation, opened to traffic. Photos by Xinhua
Lin Zhanxi (R), inventor of the juncao technology, lets Nigerian students taste juncao at Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University in Fujian Province on Aug. 12, 2021. Lin is a chief scientist and director of the China National Engineering Research Center of Juncao Technology which is based in the university.
Indonesian teacher Randy Geovani Putra tests a Gamelan instrument at Guangxi Arts University in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Oct. 12. Putra came to Guangxi to study for a master's degree in 2015; now he is a music teacher at the university. In his performances, Putra combines the Gamelan with traditional Chinese music elements.
Dancers perform on a train running on the China-Laos Railway on April 13. Connecting Kunming and Vientiane, the railway is a landmark infrastructure project of the BRI.
Shoppers stroll in a market in Blagoveshchensk, Russia on July 25. The Chinese Heihe City in Heilongjiang Province faces Blagoveshchensk across the Heilongjiang River. In June last year, the Heihe-Blagoveshchensk Cross-Border Highway Bridge over the river opened to traffic. The bridge plays an important role in increased trade turnover and has opened a new page in the development of bilateral relations.
Staff members work at a Cainiao logistics center in Madrid, Spain on July 31. The train service from the Chinese small commodity hub of Yiwu, Zhejiang Province to the European commodity center of Madrid was launched in 2014, spanning eight countries in Eurasia. The train service has become a carrier of economic and trade cooperation and cultural exchanges between countries along the railway.
Train attendants wait for passengers to board in Belgrade, Serbia on March 19, 2022. The Hungary-Serbia Railway, connecting Budapest and Belgrade, is a flagship project within the China-Central and Eastern European countries cooperation.
A train of a light rail project runs in Lagos, Nigeria on Dec. 21, 2022. Constructed by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, the Lagos Rail Mass Transit Blue Line is West Africa's first electric-powered light rail.