Top priority

China's two major railways — the North-South bound Beijing-Guangzhou Railway and the East-West bound Lanzhou-Lianyungang Railway meet in Zhengzhou, which means that freight trains from the East, West, South and North pass the city.

About 10 percent of freight trains across China stop at Zhengzhou North Railway Station for a number of reasons, including inspections, recouping and sorting work.

Zhengzhou North has one of the largest marshaling yard in China, boasting a complicated fan-shaped network of tracks and switches where railway cars can be sorted and made into trains that will head in different directions.

There are intertwined railway tracks and countless engines waiting to be coupled. Inspection workers walk through the trains and examine the status of each car to ensure that none has been damaged during their journey.

Freight trains from all over China gather at Zhengzhou North, undergoing the process of inspections, separating cars and changing engines in the classification yard.

At the busy station, employees see China-Europe freight train service as a priority.

"We always spare one or two operation lines for China-Europe freight trains, to ensure the train can be ready soon after its arrival," said Zhi Hui, Party chief of the station's dispatch plant.

When a China-Europe freight train undergoes recouping at Zhengzhou North, they go through thorough inspections by examiners.

"The team to examine China-Europe freight train is the most experienced inspectors. They can spot the size of a plate, which is critical to the train's braking system with bare eyes," said Ma Tianyi, head of a plant that manages the trains' inspection from China Railway Zhengzhou Group.

If the plate is thinner than 20 millimeter, it has to be replaced.

"When examining a train, inspectors have to change about 30 such plates," he said.

It takes about 4 hours to inspect one train.

When the train passes inspection at Zhengzhou North, it goes to Putian freight railway station to be ready for the cross-continent journey.

On Sept 17, a full-loaded train carrying a variety of products including medical equipment, auto parts, toys, food, furniture and home appliances departed from Zhengzhou Putian station, via Ereenhot, bound for Hamburg, Germany. The journey will take about 15 days.