China's first freight train service to the United Kingdom arrived at its final destination at Barking's rail freight terminal in East London on Wednesday. The cargo train embarked on the historic London journey from China's Yiwu in Zhejiang province more than two weeks ago.  

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The cargo train covered a 7,500 to 8,000-mile distance in nearly 18 days passing through seven countries including Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium, and France. It finally arrived in the UK through a channel tunnel.

China started the historic freight train service with a long-term goal to boost its export market, which has already started sliding due to the economic recession. The Asian giant is running a similar cargo train services to several European countries, with London being the 15^th European city on its ever expanding rail network.  

The London train carried 34 containers, out of which 10 containers were offloaded in Germany's Duisburg city, while the rest were taken off at the Barking terminal. Most of the containers reportedly contained socks and other commodity items.  

However, certain media reports claim that the train which arrived in London is not identical to the one that left Yiwu city two weeks ago. This is probably because the train may have been changed in Russia as larger rail gauges are used in the country than other countries included on the route.

The London cargo train as well as China's other "expanded rail network" will become part of the ambitious One Belt, One Road project. Through this ambitious project, the Chinese government wants to revive the traditional silk route to bolster trade activities with Eurasia and Central Asian countries.      

The One Belt, One Road project, also known as Silk Road Economic Belt, is one of the pet projects of President Xi Jinping and was officially unveiled in September 2013.  

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