China's high-speed trains becoming the preferred choice for travelers

2017-08-01
cgtn.com

Not only does China have more people than any other country on the earth, it also has the largest migrant population.

The annual Spring Festival travel rush is the greatest regular migration in human history. In little over a month, more than 3 billion trips are made, the equivalent of moving nearly half the global population. To pull off this feat with greater efficiency, China needed a new approach.

China’s plan is to build a super high-speed rail network of speeds of over 300 kilometers an hour to connect cities in a vast economic circle. The Beijing to Shanghai high-speed railway line is a key part of this plan.

The Beijing-Shanghai express railway, connecting the Chinese capital and the country’s largest city, will pass through 14 cities of over a million people each, a quarter of the country’s population. The link also connects the Bohai Economic Rim and the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone.

Every day, more than 350 CRH380 high-speed trains run between Beijing and Shanghai. Traveling at a velocity of over 300 kilometers an hour, they complete the 1,318-kilometer journey in less than five hours.

Trains depart every five minutes on the high-speed railway. That’s more than on most urban bus routes. In its first five years of operation, the railway handled 490 million passengers. As a result, the economies of the areas along the line have become more integrated and more vibrant.

In just 12 years, China’s high-speed rail network has become the world’s most extensive one, with a total length of 20,000 kilometers. It accounts for 60 percent of the global total.

More importantly, China has brought high-speed rail travel to the masses, so that it is rapidly becoming the preferred choice.