The Beijing–Shanghai railway or Jinghu railway () is a railway line between

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

and

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

. The line has a total length of and connects the municipalities of Beijing,

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...

, and Shanghai, as well as the provinces of

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and ...

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in His ...

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze Riv ...

and

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with it ...

. It is commonly referred to as the Jinghu railway, taking on the abbreviated names of the two terminal cities. In Chinese, ''Jing'' means "capital" and refers to

, and ''Hu'' is the abbreviated name for

History

The Beijing–Shanghai railway is composed of three sections. These three sections are some of the earliest railways in China, built before 1910 during the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. The first section is from

, constructed as part of the Imperial Railways of Northern China between 1897 and 1900. The second section is from

Pukou Pukou District (), is one of 11 districts of Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, China, lying northwest across the Yangtze River from downtown Nanjing. The district was formerly the southern terminus of the Tianjin-Pukou Railway; railcars ...

a suburb of

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...

and used to be called the

Tianjin–Pukou railway The Tianjin–Pukou or Jinpu railway ( Postal spelling: Tientsin-Pukow Railway; ) runs from Tianjin to Pukou district outside Nanjing in Jiangsu province. History The first proposals to build railways in China began in the 1860s with oppositi ...

. The third section is from

, built between 1905 and 1908. This section is called

Shanghai–Nanjing railway The Shanghai–Nanjing or Huning RailwayChinese: t , s , p ''Hù–Níng Tiělù''. is a railway in China running from Shanghai to Nanjing. The railway is about long. The Huning line is one of the busiest in China. The Shanghai–Nanjing int ...

. During 1927–1949, however, when China's capital was

, this section alone was called the "Jinghu" railway. Between

and Xiaguan, the railway crosses the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...

. Before the completion of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge in 1968, the trains were ferried across car-by-car. Passengers could also disembark at Nanjing North (Pukou), take a passenger ferry, and take a train again at the then Nanjing main station south of the river (now known as Nanjing West). After the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge was completed in 1968, these three sections were linked together and renamed as a single Beijing–Shanghai or Jinghu railway. In May 2007, electrification of the section between Fuliji railway station and Linchang railway station was completed.

Current status

The railway line is the principal line between Beijing and Shanghai and along with the

Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway The Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway (or Jinghu high-speed railway, from its name in Mandarin) is a high-speed railway that connects two major economic zones in the People's Republic of China: the Bohai Economic Rim and the Yangtze River ...

, it serves as one of the busiest rail corridors in China. It has dual tracks between Beijing and Shanghai, and the full length of the railway has been electrified. The entire line is dual tracked. Passenger rail service now offers overnight service on CRH Sleepers (D-series trains). D type express overnight sleeper bullet trains have now commenced operation between Beijing and Nanjing/Shanghai/Hangzhou.. There are currently 6 overnight D bullet trains. Overnight Bullet trains take between 9 hours and 23 minutes to 9 hours, 36 minutes between Beijing and Nanjing and were Soft sleeper only but now changed to sleeper first-class and sleeper second-class, which provide better facilities than Soft and Hard sleepers on conventional trains respectively. Some trains also have second-class seat cars. On June 30, 2011, the

opened and runs roughly parallel to the Beijing–Shanghai railway. The opening of the high-speed railway relieved the Beijing–Shanghai railway from overcrowding, and it's increasingly shifted to freight traffic. As of 2017, two regular trains per day (not including aforementioned overnight sleepers) go the full way from Beijing to Shanghai on the old line, although hundreds of trains still use selected sections of it.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beijing-Shanghai Railway Railway lines in China Rail transport in Beijing Rail transport in Tianjin Rail transport in Shanghai Rail transport in Hebei Rail transport in Jiangsu Rail transport in Anhui Rail transport in Shandong Railway lines opened in 1968

History

Current status

See also

References