This Day, That Year: Sept 12

Editor's note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

On Sept 12, 1990, the Lanzhou-Urumqi Railway linked up at Alataw Pass in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region with the former Soviet Union's Turkman-Siberia Railway, forming a new transcontinental bridge connecting Europe with Asia.

With a total length of 10,800 kilometers, the second Eurasian Continental Bridge is an international railway with its eastern terminal at Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, and its western terminal at Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It shortens the distance from Asia to Western Europe by 200 to 300 km.

In 2014, the Lanzhou-Urumqi High-Speed Railway was built. The 1,776-km line was the first long-distance high-speed line in West China connecting Lanzhou, Gansu province, with Urumqi.

It forms part of the second Eurasian Continental Bridge.

In 2013, China proposed the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road to build infrastructure, service and trade networks connecting more than 60 countries and regions in Asia, Europe and Africa.

Also known as the Belt and Road Initiative, it aspires to improve the lives of around 4.4 billion people or 63 percent of the world's population. The initiative has gained support from over 100 economies and international organizations.

They have signed 195 cooperation agreements under the framework.

Fueled by the initiative, authorities nationwide have been accelerating the various transportation infrastructure projects linking Asia and Europe.

China-Europe freight trains made 6,363 trips last year, surging 73 percent from the previous year, according to the China Railway Corp.

The freight service, a crucial part of the Belt and Road Initiative, began operation in March 2011.

The trains connect 59 Chinese cities with 49 cities in 15 European countries.