China: from green trains to high-speed railway
In ancient Chinese fantasy, the Monkey King can travel over 13 thousand miles in one somersault. But in reality, there were few transportation facilities available back then. Even with “flying” horses and sailing boats, the distance the ancient people could travel was limited.
When the People’s Republic of China was founded, trains were the principal means of transport for Chinese people to travel from afar. The total length of railway lines on the mainland was only 21,800 kilometers. There were only 36 airports, and no expressway was available. For China, these figures were out of line with its land area of 9.6 million square kilometers.
Construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway officially started in 1958. It opened to traffic in 2006 after a nearly 50-year endeavor. As the longest high-elevation train route in the world, it’s a world wonder.
October 1988 witnessed the opening of the Shanghai-Jiading Expressway, the first express highway in mainland of China.
By 2018, the total length of Chinese railways had increased to surpass 130,000 kilometers, and the total length of expressways had exceeded 140,000 kilometers, placing China at the top of the world.
Meanwhile, 230 cities have airports available for regular flights. It takes only four to five hours to fly from the northernmost point to the southernmost point of the country.
350 kilometers per hour with High-Speed Railway china high-speed railway
On August 1, 2008, the Beijing–Tianjin intercity railway was put into operation. It’s the first high-speed rail line independently built by China to accommodate trains travelling at a maximum speed of 350 kilometers per hour, marking China’s official entry into the high-speed railway era.
By the end of 2018, China had 29,000 kilometers of HSR, accounting for two-thirds of the global total.
In 2014, Turkey’s Ankara–Istanbul high-speed railway opened to traffic. This was the first overseas electrified high-speed railway project undertaken by China, and there are more in Mexico, Russia, the United States, etc.
China’s HSR technology has won acclaim for its technological advancement, safety, and reliability and has been given a name: China Speed.
