Air, rail and sea, from the centre of China.
Zhengzhou's inland location is not a handicap; it is the point. Sitting at China's geographic centre, it pairs a Tier-1 air-cargo hub with a major China–Europe rail node, rail–sea links to the coast, and a high-speed-rail radius reaching hundreds of millions of people. From one base you get genuinely multimodal reach.
Multimodal reach from a single inland base
Henan's opening-up strategy is built on four corridors, air, land (rail), sea (via ports) and digital. For an operator, that translates into a choice of mode for every shipment, all from one location.
CGO: one of China's top air-cargo gateways
Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport (CGO) has been built into a genuine global air-logistics hub at the heart of a 415 km² Airport Economy Zone. It handled around 825,000 tonnes of cargo in 2024 and passed one million tonnes in 2025, only the fifth Chinese airport ever to do so, after Shanghai Pudong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Beijing, with throughput growing roughly 10% a year since 2021.
The anchor is the Zhengzhou–Luxembourg "Air Silk Road": Henan's HNCA took a 35% stake in cargo carrier Cargolux in 2014, and the corridor has since moved well over a million tonnes, connecting onward to cities including London, Milan and Chicago. Major express and cargo players, Cargolux, SF Express, UPS, DHL, China Southern Cargo, use CGO as a hub for electronics, auto parts, pharmaceuticals and e-commerce parcels.
On passengers, CGO runs year-round long-haul service to Europe, including Milan Malpensa (Juneyao) and London Gatwick (China Southern), each around 11 hours.
A leading China–Europe rail node
Zhengzhou is one of China's principal China–Europe Railway Express hubs. In 2024 it ran 2,052 freight-train trips, the 4th-most of any Chinese city (after Xi'an, Chengdu and Chongqing), with outbound trips up 49.2% year on year. The network reaches well over 200 cities across some 25 European countries.
In 2024 the Zhengzhou International Land Port opened, a "one port, seven zones" rail hub whose first-phase consolidation centre alone covers 10,800 mu with 23.6 billion yuan of investment, designed to scale toward thousands of China–Europe trains a year. Rail reaches European terminals in roughly 12–18 days against 30–40 by sea: slower than air, far cheaper, and a real option when a timeline is tight.
A fair caveat: rail typically costs more than sea and less than air, it is the middle option on the cost/speed curve, not the cheapest. We help you pick the mode that actually fits each shipment.
Inland, but not landlocked
Scheduled rail–sea intermodal services connect Zhengzhou to deep-sea shipping: regular trains run to Tianjin Port on the Bohai Rim and, from nearby Luoyang, to Ningbo Port in the Yangtze River Delta. That gives inland manufacturers a clean path to global container routes without relocating to the coast.
Domestically, Zhengzhou is China's most central high-speed-rail hub. A 2-hour HSR radius reaches a market commonly estimated at around 400 million people, and dense expressway grids link the city into the national road network, which is why it has become such a powerful e-commerce and distribution node.
See HSR reach from Zhengzhou →
Where the Air Silk Road lands: Hungary
Connectivity to Europe is not abstract. Beyond the well-known Zhengzhou–Luxembourg corridor, the fastest-growing European gateway is Hungary, and it is built as a genuine two-ended system. Henan Airport Group (which operates CGO) and Budapest Airport have established dedicated "Exclusive Overseas Terminals" at each other's airports, linked by wide-body freighters, turning Zhengzhou–Budapest into a primary lane for Chinese cargo and e-commerce into Central and Eastern Europe.
For a European-facing operator that matters: Zhengzhou has a purpose-built, government-backed gateway into the EU's Central-European logistics core, not just a line on a route map.
Zhengzhou logistics, questions answered
Last reviewed: June 2026
How big is Zhengzhou's air-cargo hub?
CGO handled about 825,000 tonnes of cargo in 2024 and passed one million tonnes in 2025, only the fifth Chinese airport to reach that level, after Shanghai Pudong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Beijing. Throughput grew at roughly 10% a year between 2021 and 2025, and major carriers including Cargolux, SF Express, UPS, DHL and China Southern Cargo operate there.
How fast is China–Europe rail from Zhengzhou?
Typically 12–18 days to European terminals, against 30–40 days by sea, slower than air but far cheaper, and faster than ocean freight. Zhengzhou ran 2,052 China–Europe freight-train trips in 2024 (4th-most in China, up 49.2% year on year), and its International Land Port opened in 2024 to consolidate and grow that traffic.
Are there passenger flights from Zhengzhou to Europe?
Yes, year-round long-haul service including Milan Malpensa (Juneyao) and London Gatwick (China Southern), both around 11 hours, alongside an extensive all-cargo network. On freight, the Zhengzhou–Luxembourg "Air Silk Road" (Cargolux, 35% owned by Henan's HNCA) connects onward to cities including London, Milan and Chicago.
Can an inland city like Zhengzhou reach seaports efficiently?
Yes, via scheduled rail–sea intermodal services to Tianjin Port (Bohai Rim) and Ningbo Port (Yangtze Delta), connecting inland manufacturers to deep-sea shipping. Combined with a 2-hour HSR radius reaching hundreds of millions of people and dense expressway grids, Zhengzhou offers genuine multimodal reach from a single base.
What is the Zhengzhou–Hungary "Air Silk Road"?
Hungary is the fastest-growing European end of Zhengzhou's air Silk Road. Henan Airport Group (operator of CGO) and Budapest Airport have built dedicated "Exclusive Overseas Terminals" at each other's airports, linked by wide-body freighters, and Cainiao, Alibaba's logistics arm, has designated Budapest its East-Central European hub. The Hungarian Export Promotion Agency (HEPA) and Zhengzhou also jointly opened the China–Hungary (Zhengzhou) Demonstration Center in 2024. Together they make Zhengzhou–Budapest a primary gateway for Chinese cargo and e-commerce into Central and Eastern Europe.
Sources: Zhengzhou Xinzheng airport (CGO) cargo data, 2024–2025; China–Europe Railway Express 2024 operating figures; Henan provincial / Air Silk Road reporting. Route counts and frequencies change over time, we confirm current schedules per shipment.
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Air to Europe, rail across Eurasia, or sea via Tianjin and Ningbo, we'll route your freight the way that fits the shipment, from our base in Zhengzhou.