The train line, which HP describes as a "modern day silk road," covers two continents, six countries and more than 6,700 miles from Chongqing, China to distributors and customers in Duisburg, Germany. The three-week journey roughly follows the path of the ancient silk road land trading route.

Despite the distance, the journey is cost-effective and better for the environment than air transport, and it's faster than ocean shipping, HP says. Air transport from manufacturing sites in inland and western China to Europe is costly, and transporting products to the coastal cities from which they can then be shipped by sea can take up to 35 days. HP's rail solution is the best of both worlds: it costs one-third the price of air transport and takes approximately three weeks. Furthermore, rail transport results in one-thirtieth of the carbon footprint of air transport.

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