Rail transport in China began in the late nineteenth century during the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

. Since then, the Chinese rail network has become one of the largest in the world.

Qing dynasty

The first railways in China were built during the

in the late 19th century, after extensive railway networks were already in place in Europe, North America,

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

.(Chinese
"中国铁路的发展历程" ''中国铁路年鉴''
2000 edition The late arrival of railways in China was due both to the lack of industrialization and skeptical attitude of the Qing government. Although diverse and prominent personages such as

Lin Zexu Lin Zexu (30 August 1785 – 22 November 1850), courtesy name Yuanfu, was a Chinese political philosopher and politician. He was a head of state (Viceroy), Governor General, scholar-official, and under the Daoguang Emperor of the Qing dynasty ...

and Taiping rebel Hong Rengan called for the building of railways in China in the mid-19th century, the conservative Qing court considered steam engines to be "clever but useless" contraptions, and resisted the railways, which would "deprive us of defensive barriers, harm our fields and interfere with our ''

feng shui Feng shui ( or ), sometimes called Chinese geomancy, is a traditional form of geomancy that originated in ancient China and claims to use energy forces to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment. The term ''feng shui'' mean ...

''. In the 1860s, Chinese laborers helped build the Central Pacific Railroad in the United States.

Early efforts

In 1865, a British merchant built a 600-meter long

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

railroad outside the Xuanwu Gate in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

to demonstrate the technology to the imperial court.(Chinese
王勇, "慈禧用太监拉火车酿世界铁路史最大笑话" 《皇城根下的京味文化》时事出版社
2014-01-11 The court found it "exceedingly special and strange in the utmost" and promptly had the railway dismantled. The first railroad to operate commercially in China opened in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

in July 1876. The railway, known as the Woosung Road, ran from the American Concession in the present-day Zhabei District to Woosung in the present-day Baoshan District and was built by the British trading firm, Jardine, Matheson and Co. Construction took place without approval from the Qing government, which had paid 285,000

tael Tael ( ),"Tael" entry
at the

Jardine Matheson Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited (also known as Jardines) is a Hong Kong–based, Bermuda-domiciled British multinational conglomerate. It has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and secondary listings on the Singapore Exchange ...

arranged a loan of 500 million taels of silver to the Chinese government in late 1884 "for the purpose of building railways". The first railway to endure was the Kaiping Tramway and Imperial Railways of North China constructed by British engineer Claude William Kinder. Initially, a 10 kilometre (6.2 mi) line from

Tangshan Tangshan ( zh, c=唐山 , p=Tángshān) is a coastal, industrial prefecture-level city in the northeast of Hebei province. It is located in the eastern part of Hebei Province and the northeastern part of the North China Plain. It is located in t ...

to Xugezhuang built in 1881 to transport coal from the coal mine in Tangshan, this line was extended to

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

in 1888 and Shanhaiguan and Suizhong in 1894. This railway became known as the "Guanneiwai Railway" (literally, inner and outer Shanhaiguan railway). The railway was backed by the powerful

Viceroy of Zhili The Viceroy of Zhili, officially in Chinese as the Governor-General of the Directly Subordinate Province and Other Local Areas, in Charge of Military Affairs, Food and Wages, Management of Rivers and Governor Affairs, was one of eight regional ...

Li Hongzhang Li Hongzhang, Marquess Suyi ( zh, t=李鴻章; also Li Hung-chang; February 15, 1823 – November 7, 1901) was a Chinese statesman, general and diplomat of the late Qing dynasty. He quelled several major rebellions and served in importan ...

, who overcame objections from conservative ministers. To secure the support of the

Empress Dowager Cixi Empress Dowager Cixi ( ; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908) was a Manchu noblewoman of the Yehe Nara clan who effectively but periodically controlled the Chinese government in the late Qing dynasty as empress dowager and regent for almost 50 ...

for railway construction, Li Hongzhang imported a small train set from Germany and built a

railway from her residence in

Zhongnanhai Zhongnanhai () is a compound that houses the offices of and serves as a residence for the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the State Council of the People's Republic of China, State Council. It was a former imperial gard ...

to her dining hall in

Beihai Beihai (; Postal romanization: Pakhoi) is a prefecture-level city in the south of Guangxi, People's Republic of China. Its status as a seaport on the north shore of the Gulf of Tonkin has granted it historical importance as a port of internati ...

in 1888. The Empress, concerned that the locomotive's noise would disturb the

geomancy Geomancy, a compound of Greek roots denoting "earth divination", was originally used to mean methods of divination that interpret geographic features, markings on the ground, or the patterns formed by soil, rock (geology), rocks, or sand. Its d ...

or '' fengshui'' of the imperial city, required the train be pulled by

eunuchs A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...

instead of steam engine. The next effort was made by

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Governor

Liu Mingchuan Liu Mingchuan () (1836–1896), courtesy name Xingsan, was a Chinese military general and politician during the late Qing dynasty. He was born in Hefei, Anhui. Liu became involved in the suppression of the Taiping Rebellion at an early age, a ...

. From 1887 to 1893, of railway tracks were laid from

Keelung Keelung ( ; zh, p=Jīlóng, c=基隆, poj=Ke-lâng), Chilung or Jilong ( ; ), officially known as Keelung City, is a major port city in northeastern Taiwan. The city is part of the Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area with neighboring New Ta ...

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

Hsinchu Hsinchu (, ), officially Hsinchu City, is a city located in northwestern Taiwan. It is the most populous city in Taiwan that is not a special municipality, with estimated 450,655 inhabitants. Hsinchu is a coastal city bordering the Taiwan ...

. However, this railway was later demolished for modernization when Taiwan was under Japanese rule.

Rapid development during 1895–1911

Qing China's defeat in the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 189417 April 1895), or the First China–Japan War, was a conflict between the Qing dynasty of China and the Empire of Japan primarily over influence in Joseon, Korea. In Chinese it is commonly known as th ...

greatly stimulated the railway development as the government both recognized the importance of modernization and was compelled by foreign powers to grant concessions to build railways along with settlement and mineral rights. The imperial powers then took to building railways in their spheres of influence. The railroads already built in 1900 had a total length of only . Another were in the planning stage. The British built the Shanghai–Nanjing Railway (1905–1908) and

Kowloon–Canton Railway The Kowloon–Canton Railway (KCR; ) was a railway network in Hong Kong.Legislative Council information paper CB(1)357/07-08(0 THB(T) CR 8/986/00, CB(1)1749/07-08(0/ref> It was owned and operated by the Kowloon–Canton Railway Corporation (KC ...

(completed 1911). The French built the Sino-Vietnamese Railway (1904–10), an line to connect Kunming with Vietnam, then a colony of French Indochina. The Germans built the Jiaoji Railway in Shandong Province. British and German industrialists jointly built the Tianjin–Pukou Railway. The Americans built the Canton–Sam Shui Railway in Guangdong in 1902–04. Czarist Russia built the China Eastern Railway (1897–1901) as a shortcut for the

Trans-Siberian Railway The Trans-Siberian Railway, historically known as the Great Siberian Route and often shortened to Transsib, is a large railway system that connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway ...

and the Southern Manchuria Railway to Port Arthur. To prevent domination by bigger powers, the Qing Court gave the rights to the Beijing–Hankou railway to Belgians. The Japanese initially received numerous concessions along the coast of Fujian and Guangdong, and built the Chao Chow and Swatow Railway (1904–06). After winning the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

in 1904, the Japanese took over the southern section of the China Eastern Railway (from Changchun to Port Arthur) and the entire Southern Manchuria Railway. By 1911, there were around of rails in China. Most of the rails used the . KCRC early railway network of China

The imperial capital,

, was designed as the center of the Chinese railway network. Several lines radiated out from Beijing. Three main lines are Beijing–Hankou Railway, Beijing–Fengtian Railway, and Tianjin–Pukou Railway. Jinghan railway was from eh Beijing to Hankou. The construction started in 1897 and was completed in 1906. The Guangneiwai railway was extended west to Beijing and east to Fengtian by 1912 and renamed as Beijing–Fengtian Railway. The Tianjin–Pukou Railway, built from 1908 to 1912. It ran from Tianjin, which was connected by the Beijing–Fengtian Railway, to Pukou across the Yangtze River from Nanjing.

Railway protection movement and the Xinhai Revolution

The rapid expansion of foreign railroad ownership and operation in China aroused strong public resentment and led to calls for domestic development of railways. To help local economies develop and retain earnings from railways, the Qing government in 1904 permitted local provinces to organize their own railway companies and raise funds by selling shares to the public. From 1904 to 1907, 15 provincial governments formed their own railway building companies and raised funds by selling shares to citizens and levying taxes. The Beijing–Zhangjiakou Railway built from 1905 to 1909, was the first railway to be designed and built indigenously. The chief engineer was Zhan Tianyou, who is known as the Father of China's Railways. The Shanghai–Hangzhou Railway, in length and completed in 1909, was financed by the provincial governments of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The Zhengding–Taiyuan Railway, originally planned to run from Zhengding County in Hebei Province, was routed from Shijiazhuang instead and opened in 1907. In 1911, when some of the provincial railway ventures fell into bankruptcy, the foreign powers pressed the Qing government to permit them to take over the ventures. In May 1911, the Qing government sought to nationalize these locally controlled railway companies and pledge their railway concessions to foreign banks in exchange for loans. The nationalization order provoked fierce public opposition that led to the Railway Protection Movement, which contributed to the outbreak of the

Xinhai Revolution The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC). The revolution was the culmination of a decade ...

. Troops sent to Sichuan from neighboring Hubei weakened defenses in

Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...

where revolutionaries launched the Wuchang Uprising. The ensuing

toppled the Qing dynasty.

Republic of China

After founding the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

on January 1, 1912, Dr.

Sun Yat-sen Sun Yat-senUsually known as Sun Zhongshan () in Chinese; also known by Names of Sun Yat-sen, several other names. (; 12 November 186612 March 1925) was a Chinese physician, revolutionary, statesman, and political philosopher who founded the Republ ...

agreed to cede the provisional presidency to Yuan Shikai in exchange for the latter's assistance in securing the abdication of Qing court. Sun believed that a national railway network was key to the modernization of China. He sought and received from Yuan Shikai, the portfolio of railway development for the new republic. From 1928 to 1937, the Republican government in Nanjing built of railway inside the

Great Wall The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand Li (unit), ''li'' long wall") is a series of fortifications in China. They were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection agains ...

, some after 1934 financed through the China Development Finance Corporation.

Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...

, located beyond the wall, had of railways built from 1928 until 1931. On September 18, 1931, a bomb was detonated on a Japanese-owned railway track in Manchuria, which later turned out to be a false flag operation. The Japanese used this incident as a pretext for their invasion of Manchuria.

World War II

During the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...

of 1937–1945, the Republican government dismantled a number of railways to slow the Japanese advance and added of railways, mostly in the interior of China after coastal regions were occupied. Among the completed lines were the Longhai Railway (Lingbao–Tongguan and Xi'an–Baoji sections), Zhejiang–Jiangxi Railway (Hangzhou–Pingxiang section) and the Guangdong–Hankou Railway (Zhuzhou–Shaoguan section). The Shanxi warlord

Yan Xishan Yan Xishan (; 8 October 1883 – 22 July 1960; also romanized as Yen Hsi-shan) was a Chinese warlord who served in the government of the Republic of China from June 1949 to March 1950 as its last premier in mainland China and first premi ...

built the narrow gauge Datong–Puzhou Railway across Shanxi Province. The Japanese occupiers, using forced labor, built of railway in

and

Rehe Province Rehe, previously romanized as Jehol, was a former Chinese special administrative region and province centered on the city of Rehe, now known as Chengde. Administration Rehe was north of the Great Wall and east of Mongolia in southwestern M ...

and of railway in

China proper China proper, also called Inner China, are terms used primarily in the West in reference to the traditional "core" regions of China centered in the southeast. The term was first used by Westerners during the Manchu people, Manchu-led Qing dyn ...

. In 1941, construction began of the Yunnan Burma Railway, an attempt to link British occupied

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

with

Kunming Kunming is the capital and largest city of the province of Yunnan in China. The political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province, Kunming is also the seat of the provincial government. During World War II, Kunming was a Ch ...

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

province. Ultimately, however, the project was aborted.

1945–1949

In 1945, just after the

, the Chinese mainland had of rail, and it was estimated about was usable. By 1948, the number of usable kilometers of rail was estimated at only due to the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government, government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermitt ...

. The

Communists Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...

actively sabotaged rail lines to disrupt the ruling Nationalists (Kuomintang), and the Nationalists scavenged lesser used railways in order to repair the most important ones.Norton S. Ginsburg, '' Geographical Review'', Vol. 41, No. 3 (Jul., 1951), pp. 470–474

People's Republic of China

In 1951, after extensive investment in reconstruction, the Communists, who established the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

(PRC) in October 1949, had restored the usable network to about . Most of the early reconstruction (about ) was in Manchuria because Soviet and Japanese occupation there reduced the amount of sabotage between the fighting parties, allowing for quick repairs. On October 14, 1949, the cross-border service on the

was suspended as a result of the

communist revolution A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism. Depending on the type of government, the term socialism can be used to indicate an intermediate stage between ...

, and it was not resumed until April 4, 1979. Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge - the railway level

In fact, when the PRC was established in 1949, China had constructed of railway, but only was kept, including in the northeastern part of China, and in

Railway construction in the 1950s

The end to decades of warfare in China allowed railway construction to proceed on a large scale. In the 1950s, the government initiated numerous railway building projects to fill in missing links in the country's rail network. The new government undertook a vigorous railway building campaign. From 1952, when the first railway of the People's Republic, the

Chengdu–Chongqing Railway Chengdu–Chongqing railway or Chengyu railway ( zh, s=成渝铁路, t=成渝鐵路, p=chéngyú tiělù), is a single-track electrified railroad in the Sichuan Basin of Southwest China between the cities Chengdu and Chongqing. Chongqing's short ...

entered operation, to the end of the First Five Year Plan in 1957, of railroads were built, accounting for 18% of the national total. The lines completed during this period include the final sections of the Longhai and Xianggui Railways, the Litang–Zhanjiang, Yingtan–Xiamen, Lancun–Yantai and Xiaoshan–Ningbo Railways. These lines, along with the

Baoji–Chengdu Railway The Baoji–Chengdu railway, Bao–Cheng railway or Bao–Cheng Line was formerly designed as a rail line that connects Tianshui and Chengdu called Tianshui–Chengdu railway ( zh, s=天水—成都铁路, t=天水—成都鐵路, p=Tiānshuǐ Ch� ...

(completed in 1958) and the Lanzhou–Xinjiang Railway to Urumqi (completed in 1962), extended the national rail network to the Northwest and Southwest, and added connections between the coast and interior. In 1957, passenger trains averaged 34.8 km/h and freight trains averaged 25.2 km/h.

The Great Leap Forward

The launch of the

Great Leap Forward The Great Leap Forward was an industrialization campaign within China from 1958 to 1962, led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Party Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to transform the country from an agrarian society into an indu ...

in 1958 was intended to rapidly expand railway transport, but produced counterproductive results. The shipment of freight, which was not quite 300 million tons in 1957, was targeted to reach 900 million tons by 1959 and 3 billion tons by 1972. The length of newly planned railways rose from , and over the next 15 years. To reach these targets, the railroads were pushed beyond their capacity. Without experimentation, freight trains on all major lines increased carrying load from 2,700 tons to 3,600 tons without adding power to locomotives. This caused trains to backslide on slopes, damage to rolling stock and steam engines to dry boil. On time rates fell precipitously. The railways did set new records, 1.4 billion passenger rides and 1.5 billion tons of freight delivered in the three years between 1958 and 1960, some 200 million passengers and 0.5 billion tons more than the five years from 1953 to 1958, but the freight load fell to 345 million tons in 1962. The economic dislocation caused by the Great Leap Forward slowed down railway construction. Numerous lines such as the Dazhou-Chengdu Railway were delayed for decades as a result. Rail operations were revamped in 1961 and performance improved. In 1965, freight carried reached 480 million tons and the system set a new record for net income. The

Sino-Soviet split The Sino-Soviet split was the gradual worsening of relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) during the Cold War. This was primarily caused by divergences that arose from their ...

prompted the leadership to shift railway building toward the "Third Line", in the mountainous regions of the interior, away from the east coast and Soviet border.

Cultural Revolution

The launch of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 brought political turmoil to the country and disruptions to railway operations. In the fall of 1966, by Chairman Mao's edict, the Red Guards from around the country could travel on trains for free. To prevent political factional fighting to spread into the railways, the national railways were assigned to the command of the military in the summer of 1967. Railway management and operations, nevertheless, slipped rapidly. Accident rates rose 25% from 1966 to 1967, and another 20% from 1967 to 1968. Premier

Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai ( zh, s=周恩来, p=Zhōu Ēnlái, w=Chou1 Ên1-lai2; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China from September 1954 unti ...

and other moderate leaders pushed back against leftist-radical management of the railway and operations began to improve in 1969. In 1973, the system shipped 800 million tons, a new record. In 1974, however, the

Gang of Four The Gang of Four () was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes due to th ...

with the Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius Campaign, reasserted the leftist line and railway performance plummted again. From the summer of 1974 to early 1975, railway hubs in

Xuzhou Xuzhou ( zh, s=徐州), also known as Pengcheng () in ancient times, is a major city in northwestern Jiangsu province, China. The city, with a recorded population of 9,083,790 at the 2020 Chinese census, 2020 census (3,135,660 of which lived in ...

Changsha Changsha is the capital of Hunan, China. It is the 15th most populous city in China with a population of 10,513,100, the Central China#Cities with urban area over one million in population, third-most populous city in Central China, and the ...

Guiyang Guiyang; Mandarin pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, alternatively as Kweiyang is the capital of Guizhou, Guizhou province in China. It is centrally located within the province, on the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau, eastern part of the Yun ...

, and

Baotou Baotou; is the largest city by urban population in Inner Mongolia, China. Governed as a prefecture-level city, as of the 2020 census, its built-up (''or metro'') area made up of its 5 urban districts is home to 2,261,089 people with a total po ...

experienced freight bottlenecks. In April 1975, Deng Xiaoping took control of the leadership and directed the railways to focus on productivity and safety. In April 1975, the railways' coal carrying targets were met for the first time in nearly five years. In early 1976, after Deng Xiaoping was removed from power and the Gang of Four reasserted control, railway performance declined again. Compared to 1975, freight fell by 46.3 million tons year-on-year, accidents rose by 17% and tax revenues paid to the state fell by 740 million. Despite the turmoil of the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

and slowdown in rail construction at home, the Chinese Railway Ministry and the Rail Corps managed to build a railway across

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

and

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

. The TAZARA Railway was by far the largest foreign aid project undertaken by China in Africa. As many as 56,000 Chinese engineers and workers were sent overseas from 1968 to 1975. After the Cultural Revolution ended and the economic reforms were launched in 1978, the railways were reorganized and rededicated to improving safety, performance, technology and profitability. These principles have guided the railway's operations in the decades since. In 1998, passenger trains averaged 54.5 km/h and freight trains averaged 31.8 km/h.

Slowdown in the 1980s

After China initiated market-oriented economic reforms in 1978, railway building slowed as state funds were directed toward higher return investments. It was not until the 1990s, after more than a decade of economic growth, that the state committed the funds to renew large-scale railway building.

Railway building boom since 1990

In 1990, the Lanxin Railway was extended by the Northern Xinjiang Railway to the Kazakh border. In 1999, the Southern Xinjiang Railway brought railway service to

Kashgar Kashgar () or Kashi ( zh, c=喀什) is a city in the Tarim Basin region of southern Xinjiang, China. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, located near the country's border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. For over 2,000 years, Kashgar ...

in the far west. The railway to

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

however, was more difficult to build due to the high altitude and terrain. Rail lines were first extended to

Xining Xining is the Capital (political), capital and most populous city of Qinghai province in western China and the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau. As of the 2020 census, it had 2,467,965 inhabitants (2,208,708 as of 2010), of whom 1,954,795 l ...

Qinghai Qinghai is an inland Provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. It is the largest provinces of China, province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xin ...

, and by 1984 another section between Xining and

Golmud Golmud, also known by various other romanizations, is a county-level city in the Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province, China. It is now the second-largest city in Qinghai and the third largest in the Tibetan P ...

was completed. It was not until 2006 that the whole of the Qingzang railway was finished, linking

Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...

with rest of China. Since then, every province-level entity in the People's Republic of China has a railway network.

End of the steam age

Train and traffic going to the Great Wall

Before the 1980s, due to the low labor cost, ease of manufacture, and cheap coal price,

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

s dominated the Chinese railways. However, during the 1980s and 90s, diesel and

electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a Battery (electricity), battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime mover (locomotive), ...

s gradually replaced steam engines on the main lines. On some provincial rails, however, steam locomotives were not retired until the 21st century. Nevertheless, steam locomotives continued to be used on some of China's industrial railways for nearly 20 more years. The last reported operation was Class JS

2-8-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and two trailing wh ...

8089 at

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

Province's Sandaoling Coal Mine on January 15, 2024.

High speed rails

In 1978, during

Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping also Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Teng Hsiao-p'ing; born Xiansheng (). (22 August 190419 February 1997) was a Chinese statesman, revolutionary, and political theorist who served as the paramount leader of the People's R ...

's visit to Japan, he experienced the

Shinkansen The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. It was initially built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond lon ...

, the world's first high-speed rail. This sparked an interest in

high-speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail transport network utilising trains that run significantly faster than those of traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated railway track, tracks. While there is ...

systems in mainland China. As part of an infrastructure upgrade, China opened its first high-speed rail lines in 2007, utilizing trains sourced from Canada, France, Germany, and Japan. As of 2021, China possesses the world's largest high-speed rail network, with a total operating length of 40,000 kilometers.

Network length table

Notes

* a. There is a significant discrepancy in the total length of China's railways reported by ''

China Statistical Yearbook The ''China Statistical Yearbook'' (traditional Chinese: 中國統計年鑑; simplified Chinese: 中国统计年鉴), also translated into English as ''China Statistical Annual'', is a large-scale yearbook of statistical information comprehensivel ...

'' ( at year end 2015)''China Statistical Yearbook 2016'' "Length of Transport Routes at Year-end by Region (2015)"
Accessed 2017-02-16 and the ''CIA Factbook'' ( in 2014).
Accessed 2017-02-16 The ''CIA Factbook'' figure is based on "the total length of the railway network ''and of its component parts.''" The ''Statistical Yearbook'' figure includes "the total length of the trunk line for passenger and freight transportation in full operation or temporary operation" and measures the actual route distance between the midpoints of railway stations.(Chinese

Accessed 2017-02-16[http://data.stats.gov.cn/english/easyquery.htm?cn=C01 National Bureau of Statistics of China, ''National Data'', Annual Data, Length of Transport Routes, Length of Railways in Operation (10000 km), Explanatory Notes of Indicators"] Accessed 2017-02-16 Any double-tracked route or route with a return track of shorter distance is counted using the length of the original route. The length of any return tracks, other tracks within stations, maintenance and service tracks (such as those used to turn trains around), tracks of fork lines, special purpose lines and non-revenue connecting lines are excluded. The ''Statistical Yearbook'' provides cross-year and cross-regional breakdowns of railway length and its figures are presented in China railway articles.

References

External links

China Academy of Railway Sciences
* {{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Rail Transport In China