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The first ever direct freight train service from China to the UK has arrived in London after an epic 17-day journey.

The East Wind service departed Yiwu City in China’s Zhejiang Province on 3 January and crossed ten countries on its 7,456-mile trip, before pulling into Barking rail terminal in East London on Wednesday afternoon.

It crossed China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France before finally reaching Britain.

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China launches first train service to travel to Britain

The train, which is operated by Yiwu Timex Industrial Investments, arrived carrying 34 containers packed with £4 million worth of clothes and other goods and was greeted by a group of officials and local residents.

The Chinese and British governments hope the new route will increase trade between the two countries. Transporting goods by rail is cheaper than air freight and quicker than by boat. The service will run once a week for several months in order to gauge demand. If successful the rail link could be made permanent.

The link reopens the old Silk Road route that was previously used to transport goods between Europe and Asia.