Eurasian Land Bridge in the context of "Trans-Siberian Railway"

The Eurasian Steppe, also called the Great Steppe or The Steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, Siberia, European Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia.

Since the Paleolithic age, the Steppe Route has been the main overland route between Eastern Europe, North Asia, Central Asia and East Asia economically, politically, and culturally. The Steppe route is a predecessor not only of the Silk Road, which developed during antiquity and the Middle Ages, but also of the Eurasian Land Bridge in the modern era. It has been home to nomadic empires and many large tribal confederations and ancient states throughout history, such as the Xiongnu, Scythia, Cimmeria, Sarmatia, Hunnic Empire, Sogdia, Xianbei, Mongol Empire, Magyar tribes, and Göktürk Khaganate.

The Chongqing–Xinjiang–Europe railway, abbreviated as Yu–Xin–Ou railway (Chinese: 渝新欧铁路; pinyin: Yú–Xīn–Ōu tiělù), is a freight rail route linking Chongqing in Southwestern China, with Duisburg, Germany. The abbreviation consists of Yu (渝) for Chongqing, Xin (新) for Xinjiang, and Ou (欧) for Europe.

It passes through the Dzungarian Gate into Kazakhstan, and moves through Russia, Belarus and Poland before arriving in Duisburg. The railway is part of a growing rail network connecting China and Europe along the New Silk Road.

A rail land bridge is a route allowing the transport of containers by rail between ports on either side of a land mass, such as North America. Jean-Paul Rodrigue defined a rail land bridge as having two characteristics: First, a single bill of lading issued by the freight forwarder that covers the entire journey, and second, the freight remains in the same container for the total transit. One example of a rail land bridge is the Eurasian Land Bridge. A transcontinental railroad can be a type of land bridge.

The New Eurasian Land Bridge, also called the Second or New Eurasian Continental Bridge, is the southern counterpart to the Eurasian Land Bridge and runs through China and Central Asia with possible plans for expansion into South and West Asia. The Eurasian Land Bridge system is important as an overland rail link between China and Europe, with transit between the two via Central Asia and Russia. In the light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, China halted further investments in the part of the bridge that was planned to go through Russia. After the war began, the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route began to actively develop, which passes through the countries of Central Asia, the Caspian Sea and the countries of the South Caucasus, bypassing Russia.