Strolling through the streets of Lodz, the Polish city around 90 minutes' drive from the capital Warsaw, you don't see many Chinese faces.

But Marek Cieslak, its deputy mayor, has a Chinese-language name card.

Since the completion of a 9,826-kilometer cargo train route in April 2013 linking the city to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, he said he has received hundreds of business delegations from China.