It was once known as the Silk Road, the route along which trade first flourished between China and Europe, bringing silks, spices, Chinese porcelain and even gunpowder from the east.

But on Wednesday the arrival of a freight train at Barking, in east London, signalled a new chapter in the history of the centuries-old trading route.

The East Wind train pulled up at its destination at just after 1pm, following a 16-day journey, to become the first direct freight train linking China and the United Kingdom.