Would you spend two months on a train? World's largest railway opens in China

China has successfully built and tested the world's largest railway line, sending a cargo train on a 16,156-mile round trip to Spain and back.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The train arrived with cheap goods and returned with expensive olive oil during the trip, passing through Kazakhstan, Belarus, Poland, Germany and France.

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The trip began in November, from the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu, and arrived in Madrid in mid-December, unloading small Christmas items just in time for the Christmas season.

This new line is intended to cut costs and time that it takes products to move between Europe and China, which relies on an inefficient system of sea or air transport, which forces higher prices on goods that arrive in Europe.

"The cargo train will boost economic exchange between Yiwu, the world's largest small commodity market, and Madrid, Europe's largest small commodity market," said Li Huihuan, the manager of Yiwu CF International Logistics, which is the firm that operates the train.

Upon returning, the train laden with olive oil and expensive Spanish-made goods was unloaded for sale. These items are increasingly popular in a China that becomes more and more affluent.

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This new railway beats the previous record holder, the Trans-Siberian Railway-which connects Moscow to Vladivostok, by 450 miles.

Xinhua, one of China's state-run media agencies, reports that 60 percent of cheap Christmas decorations are bought or sold in Yiwu's annual Christmas market. However, the city is also famed for being the location of the world's largest counterfeit industry.

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