Linyi truck fleet carries Chinese goods across Eurasia on 30-plus routes
On the morning of Oct 12, driver Wang Biaotai checked his truck at Linyi International Land Port and set off on his 26th cross-border run, heading for Minsk, the capital of Belarus, at the wheel of a heavy-duty tractor-trailer bearing the Shandong license plate Lu Q107LP.
A round trip takes about a month and covers nearly 20,000 kilometers, roughly half the circumference of the Earth. About 150 such trucks from Linyi now shuttle across the Eurasian continent.
Four years ago, driving a Chinese truck abroad was beyond the imagination of most local hauliers. Linmanou International Logistics, founded in 2016, had "international" in its name but handled only domestic road freight. In early 2023, general manager Xian Youtao joined a municipal trade mission to the Khunjerab port area in Kashgar, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, where goods bound for Pakistan were waiting to be reloaded onto foreign trucks.
Customs officers there told him Chinese trucks could make the run themselves, provided the carrier held international road transport qualifications. Linmanou filed for international road freight registration in May 2023, then discovered that a route to Uzbekistan, transiting Kyrgyzstan, also required TIR credentials — the transit system under the Convention on International Transport of Goods that allows sealed vehicles to cross borders without unloading.
With the paperwork secured, a new problem appeared: drivers spoke no foreign languages, knew nothing of foreign roads, and were reluctant to go. Xian and deputy general manager Zhao Zuncheng drove the first route themselves, crossing six countries and covering more than 18,000 kilometers, then briefed the drivers on fuel stops, meals, overnight parking and border procedures.
Three drivers eventually agreed to take the first cargo, but still hesitated, so the two managers escorted the convoy. At a border crossing in Kyrgyzstan at nearly 4,000 meters above sea level, the group — dressed for warm weather — spent more than 20 hours clearing paperwork in low temperatures and thin air before paying for agency assistance to get through.
When the three loaded trucks finally entered Kyrgyzstan, Yang Jian, a Zhejiang businessman producing adhesive tape in Bishkek, said it was the first time he had seen Chinese trucks carrying Chinese goods arrive there. His raw materials previously had to be unloaded at the border and reloaded onto local vehicles; door-to-door delivery cut six days from his transport time.
The fleet has grown from three trucks on one route in 2023 to about 150 trucks on more than 30 cross-border routes in 2026. Besides freight for Linyi Trade City, the trucks carry clothing, express parcels and machinery from Guangdong and Zhejiang. Cargo typically exits through Suifenhe or Manzhouli, passes Lake Baikal and runs on to Moscow and Minsk, returning with timber panels, food and grain imported by Chinese companies.
Driver Li Shixiang, who has made repeated runs through the five Central Asian countries, said the language and navigation problems he once worried about turned out to be manageable, and that Chinese-plate trucks, once a rarity on these roads, are now encountered roughly every 200 kilometers.
From Suifenhe in the east to Minsk in the west, the longest routes span five time zones. A single round trip, including domestic legs, covers close to 20,000 kilometers.
Editor：韩蒙蒙