Xian

The Silk Route train connecting Turkey to China passed through Ankara on Dec. 7.

This new connectivity project called Iron Silk Road or Central Corridor is delivering its first export cargo through railway from Turkey to China, which is a short, safe, economical, and climate-friendly corridor between the Asian and European continents.

Sofia ranks 30th among 150 cities in the world in terms of rising residential property prices, according to the Residential Cities Index. Residential property prices in the capital rose 5.9% last year, with an average increase of 3.2% for all cities in the ranking. It turns out that the real estate market in Sofia performs better than in most major cities around the world.

Turkey has decided to stop all flights from China until the end of February, the health minister has said, as part of measures taken against the coronavirus threat.

Turkish Airlines announced on Jan. 31 that it is suspending flights to four Chinese destinations until Feb. 9 amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Turkish Airlines began operating flights to China in 1999, with Beijing as the carrier's first destination. Now the airline also adds Xi'an to its flight network, making the city the fourth destination in mainland China after Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Let me start with a bit of wonderful news: Next Tuesday, Nov. 6, the Chang'an Cargo Train (a.k.a. China Railway Express) is to make a short stop in Ankara. It is then going to pass under the Bosphorus, using the Marmaray tunnel. This is going to be the first direct cargo train traveling from Xian, China, to Europe, arriving at Prague passing through Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Slovakia.

Emmanuel Macron said China and Europe should work together on Beijing's One Belt - One Time initiative. The aim is to build a modern "silk road", but it can not be "one-way" according to the French president, Reuters reported.

At least three Chinese airports have been shut and nine others are experiencing extensive delays because of heavy snowfall, Chinese aviation data provider VariFlight said on Thursday, reported Reuters. 

For centuries the discovery of the Americas was credited to Christopher Columbus (even though we know for a fact that Vikings landed there much earlier) but new findings show that the Chinese may have been here much sooner than either.

China and the West were in contact more than 1,500 years before European explorer Marco Polo arrived in China, new finds suggest.
Archaeologists say inspiration for the Terracotta Warriors, found at the Tomb of the First Emperor near today’s Xian, may have come from Ancient Greece.