The Starting Point: A Backward Transportation System
Transportation has always been a major factor in China’s national economy. Most of the contemporary transportation systems have been built, developed and expanded since the founding of the New China. In the beginning, the transportation situation was very backward. The total length of railways then in China was only 21,800 km, half of which were paralyzed. The highway that could open to traffic was only 80,800 km. There were only 51,000 civilian cars. Inland waterways were in a state of nature. There were only 12 air routes. The main means of transport were still animal-drawn vehicles and wooden sailing boats. After 1949, the Chinese government made it clear that it would first ensure some fundamental conditions for the resumption of transportation. After three years of national economic recovery, the damaged transportation facilities and equipment were repaired, and water, land and air transportation were resumed.
The Leap Forward: Development since Reform and Opening - up
In 1978, the reform and opening-up started a new chapter in China’s economic and social development, and transportation entered a stage of rapid development. The government gave priority to the development of transport, increased policy support, made pioneering explorations in opening up the transport market and establishing socialized financing mechanisms, and actively reversed the passive situation in which transport did not adapt to economic and social development.
Railway, which is the major mode of long-distance transportation, has doubled in length since the mid-twentieth century, and an extensive network provides service to the entire nation. The larger cities have metro systems in operation, under construction, or in the planning stage. The highway system also has gone through rapid expansion, resulting in a rapid increase of motor vehicle use throughout China.
As for innovation and application of science and technology, the railway has built a passenger ticketing system, realizing the informatization of transportation production scheduling and command. Expressway electronic toll collection system (ETC) has basically been realized in the whole national network. Port electronic data interchange system (EDI), vessel traffic management system (VTS) and vessel automatic identification system (AIS) have been widely used in water transport management. Electronic channel chart technology of the trunk line of the Yangtze River has been developed.
After 40 years, China has become one of the powerful countries in terms of transportation. The total mileage of high-speed railways, expressways and 10,000- ton berths in ports rank first in the world, and the passenger and cargo traffic volume of the whole society ranks first in the world. On 24 October 2018, the HZMB (The Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge) was opened to the public after its inauguration a day earlier by Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China. It is both the longest sea crossing and the longest open-sea fixed link on earth. It is one of the most complex construction projects technically, with the highest construction requirements and standards in China’s transportation history.
Railways: From Traditional to High - Speed
Railways and High-Speed Rail
China’s railway construction started in the late Qing Dynasty. After more than a century of construction and development, China’s total railway operating mileage reached 124,000 km by the end of 2016, ranking the second in the world. Among them, the high-speed railway is 25,000 km long, ranking first in the world, and the double line rate and electrification rate of railways in China have reached 54.9% and 64.8% respectively. In 2007, the railway network has since been expanded to 78,000 km.
From 1990 to 2001, on average about 1,092 km of new railways, 837 km of multiple-track, and 962 km of electrified railways were opened to traffic annually. On a global basis, China’s rail transport volume is one of the world’s largest.
Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the highest railway in the world, was completed in 2006. The 815 km section from Xining to Golmud in Qinghai opened to traffic in 1984. The railway’s highest point, the Tanggula Mountain Pass, is 5,072 m above sea level, making it the highest railway in the world. More than 960 km, or over four-fifths of the railway, is at an altitude of more than 4,000 m, and over half of it was laid on frozen earth. Because of the high altitudes, carriages are supplied with supplemental oxygen.
China Railway High-speed (CRH)
The CRH series was introduced as a major part of the sixth national railway speedup implemented in 2007. By the end of 2018, China Railway High-speed provided service to 33 of the country’s 34 provincial-level administrative divisions and operated over 29,000 km passenger tracks in length, accounting for about two-thirds of the world’s high-speed rail tracks in commercial service. It is the world’s most extensively used railway service, with 1.713 billion trips delivered in 2017 bringing the total cumulative number of trips to 7 billion.
According to their speed, there are 3 categories of high speed trains, G, D and C (G being the fastest at 350 kmph, D having a speed of 250 kmph and C having a speed of 200 kmph). In 2017, the China Standardized EMU brand including CR400AF/ BF joined China Railway High-speed and are designated as Fuxing (“rejuvenation” literally) together with letters CR (China Railway). China’s rail industry continues to push the speed envelope—researchers are working on a maglev style train that shoots passengers through tubes at more than 600 miles per hour.
The Expansion of Highways
The Network of Highways
The China National Highways (CNH) is a network of trunk roads across mainland China. It refers to the highways planned, constructed, operated and managed within the territory of the People’s Republic of China. Historically, the first state highway recorded in China can date back more than 2,000 years ago to the Qin Dynasty when the first emperor built a 750 km highway, linking its capital Xianyang to the northerly border of Erdos as a defensive maneuver.
Highways in modern China started late, but developed rapidly. Now it has formed a highway transportation channel extending in all directions. By 2017, the total mileage of the highway in China had already ranked the first in the world.
The vast territory and varied geography in China greatly challenge the construction of highways. In the early years, the constructions of highways started from more developed areas and those where highways are easier to build. With the gradual implementation of the national trunk road plan, the focus has also shifted to the regions with complex terrain. Since the 1990s, China has entered a period of rapid development in highway construction. Since the implementation of the proactive fiscal policy in 1998, China has invested heavily in highway construction and started many projects.
According to the significance of management and strategy, China’s expressways are mainly divided into two categories: national expressways and provincial expressways. National highway network number is composed of letters G and Arabic numerals, and provincial highway number is composed of letters S and Arabic numerals.
Trunk National Highways Plan
In 1992, the Ministry of Transport of the People’s Republic of China established “five downs and seven acrosses” trunk national highways plan, planning to build a provincial highway system. It includes 12 key transport corridors: five vertical and seven horizontal main routes. With its completion in 2008, totaling 35,000 km, Beijing and Shanghai were linked by major highways, chiefly expressways, to the capitals of all provinces and autonomous regions of China, creating highway connections between over 200 cities all over the country.
In 2013, National Highway Network Planning (2013—2030) was carried out by Ministry of Transport. The total mileage will be increased to 265,000 km, with increased focus on the western and less developed regions.
