The Silk Road is considered the most important foreign policy project of the Chinese President. Container traffic also uses cities like Duisburg. Moscow is now threatening to destroy what Beijing has built. A bypass is in the works.
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Benedikt Müller-Arnold and Lea Sahay, Duisburg/Beijing
The Duisburg Trimodal Terminal is a place that never rests. Around the clock, forklift drivers let containers hover over the port area. Ships dock at the artificial arm of the Rhine, bringing goods from the North Sea ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp. Hundreds of trucks shuffle under the big, blue cranes day after day, loading containers and carting in new ones. And right next to it, freight trains roll on the tracks.