The cargo ship Emirates Sana loaded goods at Berth 107 of Qingdao Port in East China's Shandong province on Nov 24. It only stayed 12 hours in Qingdao Port before sailing to the United Arab Emirates port of Jebel Ali.

As a city aspiring to bolster its role as a comprehensive international transportation hub, Qingdao has been exploring international trade channels and building a new platform for international cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, relying on ports, airports, China-Europe freight trains, as well as other transportation services.

According to a manager in charge of the container business of Qingdao Port, the number of its routes has doubled since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative, building a maritime "golden passage" under the initiative.

Qingdao has expanded international economic and trade cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, supported by important hub platforms like Qingdao Port and the China-SCO demonstration zone, said local officials.

The China-Shanghai Cooperation Organization Demonstration Zone for Local Economic and Trade Cooperation in Qingdao [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Qingdao Port offers the most convenient logistics channel for containers entering from Southeast Asia, Japan, as well as South Korea to be transferred to Central Asia and Europe through the Qingdao Multimodal Transport Center in the China-SCO demonstration zone.

According to customs statistics, a total of 455 China-Europe freight trains departed from Qingdao Multimodal Transport Center in the first 10 months of the year, up 42.6 percent year-on-year.

Currently, Qingdao has more than 20,000 foreign trade enterprises with import and export records, an increase of over 6,000 compared with the figure in 2015.

Official statistics show that Qingdao's foreign trade with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative has increased 48 percent year-on-year to 210.33 billion yuan ($32.92 billion) in the first 10 months of the year.