China's railway network now has more than 160,000 km of track in operation, including more than 46,000 km of high-speed rail, the China Daily reported.
China has the world's largest high-speed rail network and is also one of the most advanced globally, according to the China State Railway Corporation.
The latest addition to China’s high-speed rail network is the Meizhou-Longchuan high-speed railway in southern China’s Guangdong Province. The 94-kilometer line is scheduled to begin operations on September 14, 2024.
Since the end of 2012, China's railway infrastructure has seen significant growth. The total length of the railway network has increased by 64.2%, while high-speed rail has expanded by an impressive 392.2%.
More than a century ago, Sun Yat-sen, China's pioneering revolutionary leader, envisioned a modern China in his book "The International Development of China."
His plan included the construction of 1.6 million kilometers of roads and about 160,000 kilometers of railways. Today, while Sun Yat-sen's vision for railways has become a reality, the development of China's high-speed rail has exceeded his expectations.
Since the Beijing-Tianjin High-Speed Railway opened in 2008, China has built the world's most extensive and advanced high-speed rail network. Major projects, such as the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High-Speed Railway in China and the Lhasa-Nyingchi Railway in the Tibet Autonomous Region, have significantly enhanced regional connectivity and development.
Since 2012, China's high-speed rail expansion has accelerated, with an average of more than 3,000 kilometers of new high-speed rail lines put into operation every year, said Li Jingwei, deputy director of the development and reform department of China Railway Group.
The country's high-speed rail network now accounts for more than 70% of the world's total. Of this, high-speed trains operating at speeds of 300-350 km/h cover 20,000 km (43%), while lines operating at speeds of 200-250 km/h cover 26,000 km (57%).
Notably, China is the only country to achieve commercial operation of 350 km/h high-speed rail.
Mr. Lee also emphasized that the high-speed rail network now covers 96% of cities with populations over 500,000, including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (China).
China's high-speed railways play an important role in the country's economic and social development, reducing travel time and promoting industrial development along the routes, Li noted.
"The travel time between Beijing and Shanghai has been reduced from about 12 hours to just over four hours, while the journey from Beijing to Guangzhou (in Guangdong province) has been reduced from about 21 hours to just over seven hours. This transformation has revolutionized the way Chinese people travel, and many people have come to love taking high-speed trains," Mr. Li added.
