{"id":6672,"date":"2016-08-25T23:55:51","date_gmt":"2016-08-25T22:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/?p=6672"},"modified":"2016-08-26T11:28:26","modified_gmt":"2016-08-26T10:28:26","slug":"first-china-to-afghanistan-freight-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/first-china-to-afghanistan-freight-train\/","title":{"rendered":"First China to Afghanistan freight train departs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4-9J1SzJLYI\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>What is described as the first train from China to Afghanistan<sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-6672-1' id='fnref-6672-1' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(6672)'>1<\/a><\/sup> left Nantong in eastern China&#8217;s Jiangsu province on 25 August 2016, carrying 84 containers.<sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-6672-2' id='fnref-6672-2' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(6672)'>2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>It is scheduled to take 15 days to complete the journey, running via the Alataw Pass, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to <a href=\"\/afghanistan\/railways\/hairatan-and-the-friendship-bridge\/\">Hairatan in northern Afghanistan<\/a>.<sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-6672-3' id='fnref-6672-3' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(6672)'>3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Two trains are scheduled to run each month, as part of China&#8217;s &#8220;Belt and Road&#8221; initiative to improve Asian transport connectivity. <\/p>\n<p>The inaugural train was photographed being hauled by Class ND5 (General Electric Type C36-7) diesel-electric locomotive number 0157, which was decorated with a red pompom kind of thing on its nose and with a sign on the front saying in English: <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"aligncentre\"><p>Central Asia Trains<br \/>\nNantong&mdash;Afghan &#8211; Hairatan<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>plus some Chinese writing, which I&#8217;m reliably informed says the same thing.<\/p>\n<p>There was also a banner on the side of the locomotive saying &#8220;<i>Congratulations on the Central Asial trains (Nantong &#8211; Afghanistan &#8211; Hairaton) launching<\/i>&#8220;,<sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-6672-4' id='fnref-6672-4' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(6672)'>4<\/a><\/sup> and there were banners on some of the wagons.<sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-6672-5' id='fnref-6672-5' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(6672)'>5<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, the containers are being carried in open wagons, rather than on flat wagons. The wagons themselves will presumably not be making the full journey, instead the containers will be shipped from China&#8217;s 1435 mm standard gauge wagons to the fomer USSR&#8217;s 1520 mm gauge at the Kazakh border.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The first <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SinoAfghan?src=hash\">#SinoAfghan<\/a> cargo left Haimen for Hairatan through <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/OBOR?src=hash\">#OBOR<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mfa_afghanistan\">@mfa_afghanistan<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JananMosazai\">@JananMosazai<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RECCAfghanistan\">@RECCAfghanistan<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yLqeuINocc\">pic.twitter.com\/yLqeuINocc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Wahid Waissi (@WahidWaissi) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WahidWaissi\/status\/768745313679110144\">August 25, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>References<\/h3>\n<div class='footnotes' id='footnotes-6672'>\n<div class='footnotedivider'><\/div>\n<ol>\n<li id='fn-6672-1'> I have no particular reason to doubt this claim <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-6672-1'>&#8617;<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li id='fn-6672-2'> <a href=\"http:\/\/news.xinhuanet.com\/english\/2016-08\/25\/c_135633740.htm\">Cargo train services launched between Nantong and Afghanistan<\/a>, Xinhua, 25 August 2016 <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-6672-2'>&#8617;<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li id='fn-6672-3'> <a href=\"http:\/\/english.cctv.com\/2016\/08\/25\/VIDE7xA7AcwAOJc9vx5u2j2r160825.shtml\">Cargo train leaves Nantong on first journey to Afghanistan<\/a>, CCTV.com, 25 August 2016 <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-6672-3'>&#8617;<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li id='fn-6672-4'> For what it&#8217;s worth, the spelling of Hairatan\/Hairaton was not consistent between the front and side banners <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-6672-4'>&#8617;<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li id='fn-6672-5'><a href=\"http:\/\/news.xinhuanet.com\/english\/photo\/2016-08\/25\/c_135633685.htm\">Central Asia freight train service starts<\/a>, Xinhua, 25 August 2016 <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-6672-5'>&#8617;<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is described as the first train from China to Afghanistan1 left Nantong in eastern China&#8217;s Jiangsu province on 25 August 2016, carrying 84 containers.2 It is scheduled to take 15 days to complete the journey, running via the Alataw Pass, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to Hairatan in northern Afghanistan.3 Two trains are scheduled to run [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[40,64,79,93,200],"class_list":["post-6672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistans-railways","tag-china","tag-freight","tag-hayratan","tag-kazakhstan","tag-uzbekistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6672"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6695,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672\/revisions\/6695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}