Chapter 7 4. Bold rail projects

Before 1950, railway transportation was the most important mode of transportation in China.At that time, there were 21,800 kilometers of traditional railway lines in China. Then, in 2009, China's railway network expanded to 86,000 kilometers and is still growing.The ratio of these infrastructures varies by region.We can clearly see the difference between the western and eastern regions of China. The western region has fewer railway lines, while the eastern region is more complete.And that gap will soon be bridged! Technical challenge! In 2007, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the highest railway in the world, was completed and opened to traffic.The completion of this railway line eclipses all the technical achievements hitherto!

This railway has obviously opened up the communication barrier between western China and the outside world, and stimulated the economic and social development here.The railway line has a total length of 1956 kilometers...it connects Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province, and Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Agriculture, animal husbandry, tourism, Tibetan medicine, medicine, and plateau green restoration are developing at an extremely fast speed!These fields are forming a fulcrum to support the rapid development of Tibet's economy, making it maintain an annual growth rate of about 10%.

In terms of overall land use planning, China has achieved in five years what took developed countries decades to complete, especially in the field of high-speed rail. One of many national-level engineering projects in China: By 2020, a huge railway network with a total length of 100,000 kilometers will be built! On January 1, 2010, it already had the world's largest high-speed rail network with a total length of 3,300 kilometers. China's high-speed rail network has attracted the attention of the world with its astonishing development speed!Of course, China has long started technical research in this area.But until 2004, only France, Japan and Germany were recognized high-speed rail powerhouses.

China's first high-speed railway, the Beijing-Tianjin Line, was completed in 2008.With it, it only takes 30 minutes to go back and forth between these two municipalities.From 2008 to 2009, other high-speed rail lines appeared one after another, such as the Guangzhou-Wuhan line, where trains galloped at speeds of 309 to 350 kilometers per hour on a 968-kilometer railway. China has revealed new ambitions for its high-speed rail network.For example, following the recent completion of the new Shanghai-Nanjing line, the Yichang-Wanzhou high-speed rail line, the most difficult to build, has been opened to the public.This boldly designed railway uses as many as 253 bridges and 159 tunnels to pass through the steep mountains of Southwest China!It takes 22 hours to travel by train from Chongqing to Wuhan, but the completion of this railway line shortens the time to 5 hours.It should be pointed out that China's high-speed rail has always been on time!

Numerous engineers and workers spent seven years building the 377-kilometer railway.Part of this railway is the most expensive section of Chinese railways!The cost per kilometer is 60 million euros!The railway winds its way through the mountains and reaches the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. 2009 to 2020 Chinese traditional railway engineering plan 86,000 kilometers of ordinary railway lines in 2009 100,000 kilometers of ordinary railway lines in 2020 The newly built railway line has brought fundamental changes to China and brought convenience to the daily life of the Chinese people, whether it is daily transportation, tourism or seasonal trips.For all businesses, families and individuals, there are undoubtedly benefits.These railways facilitated regional exchanges, the transportation of goods, and personal travel, and brought about economic growth.

High-speed rail testing is underway! In 2011, China's Ministry of Railways is expected to conduct experiments at a speed of 500 kilometers per hour in the experimental area of ​​the Beijing-Shanghai railway line. Today, China has the longest high-speed rail line in the world, and the speed is still increasing.This is the world's largest experimental railway line under construction! China's high-speed rail lines have grown from 3,300 kilometers to 7,531 kilometers in one year.It is already the longest high-speed rail line in the world!By 2012, its total length will reach 13,000 kilometers.China's great goal is that by 2015, the total length of high-speed rail lines will reach 40,000 kilometers!

China's high-speed rail plan from 2010 to 2015 2010 High-speed rail lines 3,300 kilometers 7,531 kilometers of high-speed rail lines in 2011 13,000 kilometers of high-speed rail lines in 2012 40,000 kilometers of high-speed rail lines in 2015 China has the world's longest high-speed rail network, and it has even more spectacular plans to expand its high-speed rail network.The total investment in 2012 will reach 90 billion euros, and by 2020 this figure will grow to 220 billion euros! Let's take a new initiative as an example - the new generation of high-speed trains put into operation on the Beijing-Shanghai line.Today, it takes less than 8 hours for passengers to reach most of the capital cities of the country from Beijing, and the journey from Beijing to Shanghai has been shortened from the original 10 hours to the current 4 to 5 hours.

The total cost of this 1318-kilometer high-speed rail line is 24.4 billion euros.Nearly 135,000 workers have been working around the clock since 2008 to build the railway.It connects seven provinces as well as cities on the east coast.A quarter of China's population lives in this wealthy region on China's eastern coast!This region generates 40% of the gross domestic product.This railway line has 24 stations, of which there are five major stations: Beijing Station, Tianjin Station, Jinan Station, Nanjing Station and Shanghai Station. The Chinese broke a new high-speed rail world record!During a test run from Hangzhou to Shanghai, the new generation of China's high-speed train called "Harmony" ran at a speed of 416.6 kilometers per hour.

High-speed trains have changed the lives of Chinese people: they can arrive home on time to celebrate traditional festivals, they can better plan their trips and holidays, and so on.Thanks to cutting-edge high-speed rail technology, the space-time distance between cities has been shortened in an instant. The development of high-speed trains has also changed people's perception of economic and human geography!Cities that are closer to the provincial capital will take one to two hours, while for the suburbs it will only take half an hour to an hour. The high-speed rail network is composed of four east-west railway lines and four north-south railway lines, which will shorten the space-time distance of three regions: the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta and the Bohai Rim Basin.

In this way, by combining with the accelerated urbanization plan, the high-speed rail network will unite the old industrial centers in the Northeast, the cities in the Central Plains, and the towns in the Guanzhong Plain.The influence of these economic regions will be strengthened. Parts of the country will enjoy fairer treatment, and all Chinese will be able to travel and share in the future economic prosperity.The development of China's high-speed trains is a representative of China's transition from labor-intensive industries to cutting-edge technology industries. China's high-speed railways and high-speed trains will become its new export products!