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A Historical Review of the Railway in China

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The railway system in China is the second biggest in the world with more than 124,000 kilometres or 77,000 miles, it is the world’s longest in terms of its high speed rail network with over 22,000 kilometres or nearly 14,000 miles with trains reaching speeds in excess of 300km/h (186mph). The rail network is continually growing with plans to increase the rail network to 274,000 km or 170,000 miles by the year 2050, although China’s early days of building its railways did not look so promising.

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China’s first railway

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In 1864 a British merchant assembled a 600 metre demonstration railway in Beijing to show the Chinese government of that time the technology of a railway, the Chinese leaders were unimpressed and the line was dismantled. In Shanghai, a 14km railway was built from the city to Woosung (today known as Baoshan) in 1876, again built by the British and the Qing government had the unapproved line dismantled the following year. The Chinese government was hostile towards construction of railways until China was defeated in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-5); in 1895 they began granting concessions to foreigners to build the first railways.

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By the time of the Chinese Revolution in 1911 and the fall of the Qing Dynasty over 9,000 km;s of railway had been constructed, largely under the ownership and operation of foreign companies. The first railway to be designed and then constructed solely by the Chinese was the line from Beijing to Zhangjiakou in Inner Mongolia, it took four years to build over and through mountainous terrain. The chief engineer of this project was Zhan Tianyou, he became known as the ‘Father of China’s Railways.’

 

Republic of China (1912-1949)

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Many of the railways built in the north and north east of China’s Manchuria (today known as Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang) were built by Russia, with Japan seizing most of these assets during the Russo-Japanese War. Generally progress and railway expansion across China was slow due to civil war and the invasion of Japan during the second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). The Japanese controlled north eastern China being an exception with several lines built and maintained by the Japanese. By 1945 and the fall of the Japanese from China, there was a total of 27,000 km of railways in the country, with 13,000, almost half in Manchuria.

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PRC (People’s Republic of China) from 1949

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The Chengdu-Chongqing Railway was the first railway to be built in the PRC, opening in 1953. The government of Mao Zedong invested heavily in expanding the rail network, particularly in western China from 1950 until the 1970’s. Railways such as the 1900km line from Lanzhou to Urumqi connected the far western Xinjiang province to the rest of China by rail, although it took from 1952 until 1962 to be completed. The railway connecting Tibet to the rest of China is one of the world’s highest railways and only opened in 2006. Every province within China is connected by the rail network.

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Prior to the 1980’s most of the railways in China were powered by steam locomotives, with the final steam locomotive being retired from public service in 2005. The use of diesel locomotives began in 1958, with those and electric powered locomotives largely replacing the older steam driven ones from the 1980’s. One or two steam locomotives are still used on private industrial railways.

China Railways is one of the world’s largest employers with over 2 million employees.

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Chinese High-speed Railways

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Since the beginning of the 21st century China has been investing in its high-speed rail network, with the first services beginning in 2007, often following routes of existing sections of its railway grid, but also linking cities that had previously been overlooked by rail. On lines built solely for high speed passenger trains speeds of up to 350kmph (220mph) are possible, while lines that use both high-speed and other regular trains are restricted to 250kmph or 160mph. In 2004 the Maglev Train opened in Shanghai with yop speeds of 431kmph or 268mph. It is still the fastest train in China and the 30.5km (19 mile) journey from the city to Pudong Airport takes less than seven and a half minutes.

 

China has over 5,500 railway stations across its network, with many newly built or refurbished stations solely for use by high-speed trains. Stations are divided into six classes depending on their capability and level of expectation. More than 50 stations are graded as being special class, able to handle over 60,000 passengers every day. Beijing West Railway Station was opened in 1996, it is one of the biggest stations in Asia and every day has between 150,000 and 180,000 passengers.

 

Highest and Longest Bridges and Tunnels

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In Guizhou province in the south west of China is the Beipan River Bridge, it is the world’s highest railway bridge with the deck of the bridge being 275 metres or 902 feet above the deeply gorged Beipan River. The Yichang - Wanzhou railway, completed in 2010 has 159 tunnels and 253 bridges, accounting for 74% of the railway that links the cities of Wuhan and Chongqing. Three of the world’s longest railway bridges are on the Beijing – Shanghai high-speed railway. At the last count in 2008, there were more than 47,500 railway bridges in China, with 872 longer than 500 metres. The longest is over 160 km in length.

 There are more than 6,100 railway tunnels in China (2008 records) with many added since then. China has 19 tunnels over 20km in length, the longest tunnel currently is the Songshanhu Tunnel in Guangdong province, it is nearly 39 km or 24 miles long.

 

Long Distance over Commuting

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Traditionally, on average people will take the train for trips of around 500 km in China, the train is generally not used for short commuter travel in China. In Europe, the average rail journey is around 40 km. Several cities in China are now introducing suburban railways and inter city services with over 500 new stations opening, so people may start using the train for shorter local journeys.