China high-speed train network celebrates 10 years of service
August 7, 2018 Category Travel, Weekly
China launched its first high-speed railway line, the Beijing-Tianjin high-speed train service, 10 years ago on August 1, 2008. The high-speed train, running at over 300 km per hour, takes 35 minutes from Tianjin to Beijing. The daily frequency of Beijing-Tianjin intercity trains has increased from 94 one-way services to 217, with 250 million passengers carried in the past decade, according to the Beijing Railway Bureau. The length of high-speed railway lines in China rose from zero 10 years ago to 25,000 km by 2017, accounting for 66% of the world’s total. More than 4,000 bullet trains run in China, carrying 4 million passengers every day, according to the China Railway Corp.
When the first high-speed railway in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region starts operation at the end of 2019, the trains will run on the 287-kilometer-long railway passing the regional capital of Hohhot, Ulanqab City and Zhangjiakou City in neighboring Hebei province. It will reduce the travel time between Beijing and Hohhot from the current nine hours to three hours. By then, all provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland will have high-speed train service, except the Autonomous Region of Tibet. A network of eight east-west high-speed rail lines and eight north-south lines will be built, according to a railway development plan.
A high-speed railway connecting Beijing and Guangzhou has shortened the travel time across the 2,300 km distance to eight hours. The new Fuxing bullet trains travel at 350 km/h, going from Beijing to Shanghai in four hours and 18 minutes. By 2020, China’s high-speed rail length is expected to reach 30,000 km, covering 80% of the major cities. By the end of 2017, the high-speed trains had carried more than 7 billion passengers. Cargo delivery via high-speed trains started in 2016, with more than 500 cities used as pilot areas for express services.
Recently, China has started to export its high-speed trains and technology. In 2014, China completed the construction of its first overseas high-speed rail in Turkey. In June 2015, China and Russia inked deals for 770 km of track connecting Moscow and Kazan. In October 2015, China and Indonesia signed a deal on the joint-venture construction of a high-speed railway between Jakarta and Bandung, the Shanghai Daily reports.
Chinese engineers also completed the design of the world’s longest undersea railway tunnel, connecting the mainland to Taiwan. It would be three and a half times longer than the 37.9 km Channel Tunnel between Britain and France, which has a 160 km/h speed limit. Trains would travel through the 135 kilometer undersea section of the tunnel at speeds of up to 250 km/h by 2030. But rising political tensions between Taipei and Beijing could still derail the project. Work on the tunnel could take three decades to complete.
- KURT VANDEPUTTE (UMICORE) APPOINTED CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF THE FLANDERS-CHINA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (FCCC)
- Webinar: “Knowing Your Chinese Partner” – May 26, 2021, 10 am – 12 am
- EMA starts rolling review of CoronaVac, WHO approves Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use
- The Global Times warns not to politicize the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI)
- Hainan to become biggest duty-free market in the world