In the following 10 years, China raised its railway speed six times. A series of fast trains operating at over 200 km per hour were put on line, while cargo train speed was increased to 120 km per hour. The speed was three times faster than that in the early 1990s.

In June 2008, the Beijing-Tianjin Inter-City Line began operation, with designed train speed exceeding 350 km per hour, the fastest in the world. The time it takes to travel from Beijing to Tianjin is shortened from one-and-a-half hours to only half an hour. The decrease in travel time makes the two cities virtually into one. The Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway, which is now under construction, is expected to be complete in 2010.

High-speed railways will not only alleviate transportation pressures, but also bring enormous convenience to train travelers.

By 2020, China will establish fast passenger lines on 12,000 km of rail, connecting large and medium-sized cities to form a network of high-speed land connections to meet the needs of the country's rapid economic and social development.

When the Qinghai-Tibet Railway started running on July 1, 2007, railways had finally connected all of China's provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.

Big plans for big engines

Ministry of Railways researcher Wu Weiping said 60 years of arduous development has allowed China to manufacture all types of advanced rolling stock and train equipment. In the process, the country has become independent of imported railroad equipment and machiney. As a show of China's advancing technology and abilities, the rolling stock being used in the new CRH program is produced domestically.

Before 1949, most of the rolling stock on Chinese railways was imported. After that year, the railway department built its own factory to produce equipment for the country. In 1952, it began to build steam locomotives. In 1958, diesel locomotives started rolling out of the factory. In 1960 the switch was made to electric engines.

By the end of 1981, China had built and deployed two-and-a-half times more locomotives than in 1949; the number of passenger trains was four times more than those running the rails in 1949; and the number of cargo trains was 5.7 times more than those running in 1949. The gross weight hauled by locomotive increased from 1,600 tons in 1949 to 3,500 tons in 1981.

Steam locomotive production gradually stopped. By 1985, some 385 diesel and electric locomotives had been produced annually. Apart from the engines, China also produces different types of passenger and cargo trains.

Over 60 years, rolling stock manufacturers have made more than 23,700 locomotives, including 9,700 steam, 11,100 diesel and 2,800 electric engines. They have also made more than 45,600 passenger and 696,700 cargo trains. The machines not only fill the domestic demand, but are also exported to foreign markets.

Currently, China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Industry (Group) Corp. and China North Rolling Group Corp. control 95 percent of the domestic market. The former, which was listed on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock markets in August 2008, holds nearly half the Chinese market share and is the leader in building the newest CRH technology.

Connecting the world

Wu Weiping said domestic railways are also linked to neighboring countries and can reach every country in Europe.

At present, China has 10 railway lines that connect the country with its neighbors-Russia and North Korea are each connected by three lines, Viet Nam by two lines, and Mongolia and Kazakhstan each by one line.

Two of the three lines connecting China to Russia-the Manzhouli-Zabaikalsk and the Suifenhe-Gurujekowo railways-began operation in 1951. The Hunchun-Mahalino Railway was launched in 2000.

All three of the lines connecting China to North Korea-the Dandong-Sinuiju, Tumen-Hamgyongand Ji'an-Manpu-began operating in 1954.

The line that connects China and Mongolia, the Erlianhaote-Zamyn Uud Railway, was launched in 1955 and started transporting international passengers and cargo in 1956.

The railway that links China with Kazakhstan, operating since 1991, runs from China's Ala Mountain Pass to Dostyk, Kazakhstan.

The two railways that connect China and Viet Nam start from China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Yunnan Province and run to the border cities of Viet Nam.

Wu Weiping said the 10 international railways have two functions. First, they serve for bilateral passenger and cargo transportation between the neighboring countries and China. Second, they act as transit stations where Chinese passengers can continue on to Europe by rail.

The Chinese Government has made plans to build new railways in western parts of the country to speed construction of international passageways, Wu said. One such plan is the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway, which will serve as the southern branch of the Euro-Asia Continental Bridge.

China is also planning a China-Myanmar railway that will run between the two countries and then connect to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. This rail will play an important role in strengthening China's ties with Southeast Asia.

China has also created a detailed plan to build an international rail pass in the southwestern part of the country that will connect it to India. The railway will go from China's Yunnan Province through Myanmar to India and Bangladesh. This railway will connect inland Chinese cities to Bangladeshi ports. The link will promote China's economic ties with South Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

Future blueprint

China's railways account for only 6 percent of the world's total, though they shoulder one-fourth of the world's transportation load.

In order to break the bottleneck, China readjusted its Middle/Long-Term Railway Network Plan that was adopted in 2004, and came up with a revised version in October 2008. The new plan said the total length of the Chinese railway should be extended by 2020 to 120,000 km, 20,000 km longer than the 2004 plan stated as a goal. By 2020, the proportion of railways using electric power will rise to 60 percent, while passenger lines will reach 16,000 km.

"Chinese railway construction made great achievements in the past 60 years. But taking into consideration the country's vast territory and population, our railway system needs more development if we are going to catch up with those in developed countries," said Lu Changqing.

Lu said imbalanced resource and industrial layout in China make it a requirement that coal and grain produced in the north must be transported to the south, while coal and cotton in the west must be transported to the east.

Meanwhile, with improving living standards and urbanization, inter-city transportation loads will soon surge. Rail travel is the first choice in coping with the large transportation volume as it is efficient and has high capacity, low energy consumption, a good safety record, and produces relatively little pollution.

According to Chinese Government plans, high-speed railways are the focus of future railway development. Lu said there are still currently about 13,000 km of railway lines that have not had speed limits raised. They will be upgraded to allow speeds of over 200 km per hour.

The construction of resource transport lines will be intensified, especially for moving coal. The Chinese Government will modify and expand lines in 10 major coal production provinces like Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi and Guizhou to form a comprehensive and high-capacity coal transport system.

In order to finance these targets, the Chinese Government passed a budget in November 2008 to invest 2 trillion yuan ($292 billion) on railway construction over the next three years.

Milestones in 60 years of railway construction

In 1952, construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing railway was completed. The line was the first to be established after the founding of the People's Republic of China.