Road transportation is picking up speed in the Belt and Road Initiative. In addition to sea, rail and air, the road is now taking off between Europe, China and destinations in between. Xu Xinchen has more.

A truck driver from Urumqi, Zhang Jian has spent two decades on the road traveling within China and across the border into Kazakhstan, an important passage-way of the ancient Silk Road.

Catching the driver's eye - changes in one of the major Chinese Belt and Road cities of the region - Khorgos.

ZHANG JIAN TRUCK DRIVER "Since the Belt and Road Initiative, Khorgos now has a better, new terminal with wider roads."

ZHANG JIAN TRUCK DRIVER "Now, our company has a pretty large number of orders. There are many people from China doing business with Europe, and road transport could be faster."

China officially implemented a TIR system in 2018. This is a global transit system recognized by most Eurasian countries. Created by the International Road Union, TIR allows cargo to be sealed at its origin and only be opened upon arriving at the destination cutting inspection time when traveling through multiple countries.

XU XINCHEN KHORGOS, XINJIANG UYGHUR AUTONOMOUS REGION "Road transport provides an additional choice on top of the already developed sea, air and rail routes along the Belt and Road. One option allows cargo from China and Europe to reach buyers as quickly as within a week - pretty much the same as traveling by air but only one third the price."

By late March, Chinese customs authorities had opened ten border crossing points for TIR - six of them in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region - expanding the country's links with the west.

Traders are happy about the new development. JF International specializes in trading Korean cosmetic products. The firm is eyeing markets in the Eurasian Economic Union where cosmetics from South Korea has just started to boom. Road transport is essential.

LIU HE, GENERAL MANAGER JF INTERNATIONAL "We choose road transport mainly because cosmetics need to be stored at constant temperature. And maintaining cold chains is easier with road transport than other modes of transportation."

Sea-transported cargo from China and Europe takes over a month to move but that is changing fast. Early this year, Dutch firm Alblas jointly operated the first TIR project from Germany to reach China's Khorgos.

DILISAT MAMAT, COO ALBLAS XINJIANG "Just one client right now needs to charter 200 planes a year if some of that volume pivots to road transport, the prospect for road transport linking China and the west is huge. We need 50 or 100 logistics firms to grow the pie in the future."

A brand new highway is also being built to link roads in West China with Europe - dubbed the Western Europe to Western China International Transit Corridor. According to the World Bank, upon completion of the new highway, freight volume by road would more than double. One task that remains for international logistics companies like Alblas, however, is to convince many more to choose to take the road. Xu Xinchen, CGTN, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.