THE 2,298-kilometer Beijing-Guangzhou High-speed Railway officially opened to passengers on December 26, 2012. The occasion marked China’s successively overcoming the technical difficulties associated with sustaining high-speed train journeys over very long distances.

With the Qinghai-Tibet Railway which opened in 2006 – the highest railroad in the world, that runs across 550 kilometers of permafrost – China could lay claim to the world’s most impressive single railway. But with the rapid development of a nationwide network of high-speed trains in recent years, China has taken rail to a whole new level. The Beijing-Guangzhou line is the culmination of this development.

Long Road to High Speed

The Beijing-Guangzhou line is the world’s longest high-speed rail route. The designed speed of the track is 350 km/h, though speeds during the initial period of operation will be limited to about 300 km/h. The new route cuts the travel time between Beijing and Guangzhou by almost two thirds, from 22 hours to roughly eight hours.

In 2004 China began importing trains from Japan with a design speed of 200 km/h. After seven years of innovation, Chinese technicians mastered the design, manufacturing and safe running of trains at 250 km/h. Soon after, the country independently developed the technology to design and produce trains that would break speed records: 350 km/h was the new benchmark.

On December 1, 2012, not long before the opening of the Beijing-Guangzhou High-speed Railway, the Harbin-Dalian High-speed Railway, the first high-speed line ever to cross land that lies frozen for almost half a year, began operations. The Harbin-Dalian line extends 921 km and traverses four major cities in Northeast China’s three provinces. It allows passengers to appreciate the view off the coast from Dalian in the morning, and the winter snowscape of frosty Harbin in the afternoon.

At present the total length of high-speed lines in China has reached 9,349 km. With four main lines running east-west and four north-south, the country’s high-speed train network is the world’s largest. China plans to expand its high-speed railway network to 50, 000 km by 2020, to cover almost all large and medium-sized cities.

Tackling Low Temperatures

Prior to the opening of the Harbin-Dalian High-speed Railway, the world had three nominally high-speed railways that ran over terrain where temperatures fall as low as minus 40 degrees centigrade. Located in Russia and Northern Europe, the three lines add up to less than 700 kilometers of track.

One line runs from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. It has a maximum operating speed of 250 km/h, but can only hold that velocity for a maximum of 20 minutes.