China Railway Corp put seven high-speed lines into service in southern, central and western China on Saturday. The national high-speed railway network, consisting of 8 major lines - "4 horizontal and 4 vertical" - has taken shape with the 7 new lines. China's high-speed railway now exceeds 10,000 km - nearly half of
China Railway Corp put seven high-speed lines into service in southern, central and western China on Saturday. The national high-speed railway network, consisting of 8 major lines - "4 horizontal and 4 vertical" - has taken shape with the 7 new lines.
China's high-speed railway now exceeds 10,000 km - nearly half of the global total - and is expected to hit 18,000 km by 2020.
It took 6 years for construction workers and engineers to build these historic high-speed railways across the diverse and often-challenging landscapes. This time was spent grinding twisting terrain into smooth routes.
Travel time from Beijing to Guilin, a picturesque city in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, has been shortened from about 26 hours to 10.5 hours. It now takes 3.5 hours to go from Guangdong province's Shenzhen to Fujian province's Xiamen by bullet train - 8 hours fewer than before. And travel time from Shanghai to Shenzhen has been cut from 18 hours to fewer than 12.
The high-speed rail along the coastlines of Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong - connecting Shanghai, Xiamen and Shenzhen - is crucial to the integration of the three economic hubs: the Yangtze River Delta, the Fujian city clusters and the Pearl River Delta.
Analysts believe the high-speed railway is crucial for regional integration. Many ASEAN members have shown a strong interest in building high-speed railways.