New town and launch of regular trains to boost modernized trading routes between East and West, Tan Yingzi reports from Chongqing

Legend has it that Chinese emperor Han Wu Di (156-87 BC) once looked to the lands west of his vast empire and proclaimed them full of people who placed "great value on the rich produce of China".

That regal observation spurred exploration of those foreign lands, leading to a network of trading routes between the East and West that came to be known as the Silk Road.