The delegation attends a business promotion meeting in the Xixian New Area of Shaanxi province on June 28. (WILLIAM XU / CHINA DAILY)

About 70 Hong Kong-based foreign diplomats and business leaders gained firsthand experience of inland Chinese cities’ welcoming and innovative atmosphere on Wednesday after being briefed on the fruitful results achieved by hinterland Shaanxi province under the Belt and Road Initiative.

During the fourth day of their weeklong visit to Henan and Shaanxi provinces, the delegation members toured an automobile assembly line of BYD, a colossus in electric vehicle manufacturing, and visited a gigantic railway massing center where freight trains set off to Europe.

The managing authority of the new area held a business promotion meeting for the delegation to showcase its economic achievements under BRI cooperation

The delegation, led by Liu Guangyuan, commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, aims to help foreign communities in Hong Kong better grasp the opportunities brought by the BRI, a global infrastructure cooperation framework proposed 10 years ago.

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Members of the delegation visited BYD’s manufacturing base in Xi’an on Wednesday morning. They toured the company’s assembly line, and witnessed the painting and assembling processes. Some of them also tried out new BYD-made electric vehicles in the plant.

The company introduced delegates to its self-developed “blade battery”, which enables an EV to drive for 600 to 700 kilometers, which is further than a traditional battery can do, and has good safety features, according to BYD.

In the afternoon, delegates drove to the Xixian New Area, a national-level new district of Shaanxi established in 2014 to boost western China’s innovative industries.

The managing authority of the new area held a business promotion meeting for the delegation to showcase its economic achievements under BRI cooperation.

Addressing the event, Yang Renhua, general secretary of the Communist Party of China’s Working Committee of the new area, said the new area is home to high-quality investment projects of world-class innovation corporates such as Microsoft, Honeywell and Hitachi Energy.

The delegation visits the China Railway Express Massing Center in Xi'an of Shaanxi province on June 28. (WILLIAM XU / CHINA DAILY)

Leveraging the Xi’an Xianyang International Airport in the district, the new area has opened 97 international passenger routes and 24 cross-boundary cargo routes, he added.

As this year marks the BRI’s 10th anniversary, Yang invited friends from all over the world to experience the vitality and innovation of the new area.

After the promotion meeting, delegates visited the China Rail Express Massing Center in Xi’an.

Members of the delegation try out an electric vehicle made by BYD in Xi’an of Shaanxi province on June 28. (WILLIAM XU / CHINA DAILY)

Foreign diplomats and business heavyweights were told that the massing center operates 17 outbound freight transportation routes, allowing for the delivery of general cargo, e-commerce packages, and cold chain products from the Chinese mainland to Hamburg, Germany; Barcelona, Spain; Rotterdam, the Netherlands; and other cities in Europe and Asia via rail.  The center dispatched 4,200 freight trains in 2022, according to its operator.

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Matthew Hosford, a member of the delegation from the United States, said the trip has been an extensive display of high value-added industries in the inland provinces.

“The industries adopted very impressive technologies, and a lot of them focus on green (energy),” Hosford said.

Discussing the visit to BYD, he said it was informative to see the technologies and to understand how they have evolved.