A Brief History of China’s Railroad

Original piece: 《…况且况且况且况且…》
Produced by Institute for Planets (星球研究所)
Written by 桢公子
Translated by Kelvin Kwok
Posted with permission from Institute for Planets

China’s Bones of Steel
Dedicated to all those who are on their journey home

Translator’s comment:
The original title in Chinese is pronounced as ‘…kuangqie-kuangqie-kuangqie-kuangqie…’, which is an onomatopoeia for the running wheels of Chinese trains from the previous generation. It is a characteristic rumble that resonates with the bittersweet memories in all those who have witnessed the rise and fall of the preceding railroad dynasty in China.

The Spring Festival travel season in 2019 started on the 21 January.
This day marked the beginning of another year of the great migration in China.

In the following 40 days, buses, trains, ferries and air flights across the country would accommodate a staggering passenger volume of up to 2.99 billion, which is equivalent to transporting 40% of the population on Earth within a month or so. The scale of this Chinese migration is unrivalled in the whole world.

An indispensable component of public transport in China is the railroad system. Stretching from inland to the coast, venturing deserts and jungles, and shuttling between cities and rural villages, it forms an elaborate network of steel skeleton that reaches almost everywhere in the country. Throughout the Spring Festival travel season, there would be approximately 4800 pairs of trains speeding back and forth, tirelessly escorting waves of passengers to their destinations thousands of miles away.

How did China grow her bones of steel as it is today?

This is not something that can be explained in a few words. To get a glimpse of China’s struggles in railroad development, one has to go all the way back in time. It all started slightly more than 140 years ago, when the Chinese railroad was still a blank canvas…

1. The First Network

In 1878, when the total railroad mileage around the world had already exceeded 200,000 kilometres, the Qing government decided to dismantle the Woosong Railway which was surreptitiously built by the British. China’s railroad mileage fell right back to zero.

But no one can refuse the unstoppable course of time, not even the Great Qing.
Because of the increasing demand for coal, the Qing government had no choice but to pay for the construction of the 9.3 kilometres long Kaiping Colliery Tramway, just 4 years after the dismantling of Woosong Railway.

This first railway in China represents the shabby starting point for the country’s railroad development.

After the utter defeat of the Qing government in the First Sino-Japanese War, Western powers wasted no time to grab hold of the rich resources and military benefits in China by building numerous railroads on the Chinese territories through cession and loans.

The Chinese Eastern Railway built by the Russian Empire in 1903 stretched from Manzhouli in the west to Suifenhe in the east. With branches reaching Harbin, Shenyang and Dalian, the entire railway spanned more than 2400 kilometres.

These two railways traverse the northeast plains perpendicularly like a ‘T’.

The old Kaiping Colliery Tramway was also constantly expanding. Starting off with merely 9.3 kilometres, it eventually extended beyond 1000 kilometres in total, connecting the Zhengyangmen (or ‘gate of the zenith sun’) in Beijing and Shenyang, which are separated by the Shanhai Pass. It became part of the old Beijing-Harbin Railway.

Building on the framework of the Chinese Eastern Railway and old Beijing-Harbin Railway, the railroad network spread out gradually in the northeast. By the late Republic era, this network accounted for 40% of the total mileage in China. It not only prepared the region for the upcoming rapid industrialisation, but also laid the important groundwork for the Jing-Jin-Ji-Northeast Corridor today.

Southern cities like Shanghai, Wuhan and Guangzhou, which are all nurtured by rivers and embraced by the sea. Before the capital city was relocated to Nanjing by the Republic government, they were already prospering with their established shipping and trading industries. In contrast to the rising stars in the south, key neighbours of Beijing, the capital city then, were dully stuck in the far north. Thus, railroads were assigned the glorious mission to link up all the major cities across the country.

This prompted the completion of the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway and Tianjin-Pukou Railway in East China, which connect Nanjing with Shanghai and Tianjin respectively.

And in Central and South China, the Beijing-Hankou Railway, as well as the Yuehan Railway running between Guangzhou and Wuchang, formed the preliminary railroad system that bridges the north and the south.

The Yuehan Railway was completed in 1936 amid the raging wars and extreme shortages of resources. But in order to maintain the logistic support and development behind the frontline, the construction had to go on despite the displacement of large crowds of civilians.

Also completed around the same period was the Hunan-Guangxi Railway, which branched out next to the Yuenhan Railway to connect the two provinces in the south.

However, there was one issue with the two railways connecting the north and south — the Yangtze River, which mercilessly cuts both of them into half. With the track separated by the natural moat, trains had to rely on ferries to reach the other side of the water.

It was not until after the completion of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge and Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, when the famous Beijing-Guangzhou Railway and Beijing-Shanghai Railway could finally run uninterrupted across the grand river.

It was several decades later when the third railway connecting the north and south was completed. Shuttling between Beijing and Kowloon, Hong Kong, this railway was built almost in perfect parallel with the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, but lacks all the bustle and hustle throughout its journey, as it passes through only one provincial capital city (Nanchang). This is the Beijing-Kowloon Railway.

Together, the Beijing-Shanghai, Beijing-Guangzhou and Beijing-Kowloon Railways have become the major backbone for transportation between the Jing-Jin-Ji Metropolitan Region and the Yangtze and Pearl River Deltas.

Wars and political turmoil that lasted for almost a century finally died down with the establishment of New China. In a completely devastated and dirt poor country, rebuilding the economy and consolidating national defence were the top priorities. Hence, even the extreme shortage of capital and lack of technology did not stop Chinese railroads from stretching out into barren deserts and precipitous mountains in the most remote territories.

The Chengdu-Chongqing Railway which started operating in 1952 was the first train that ran in Sichuan, and was the first railway constructed by the new Chinese government. In the coming decades, Chinese railroad went on numerous ‘great expeditions’ in the southwest. Gradually, key cities in the southwest, including Chengdu, Chongqing, Guiyang and Kunming, were linked up one by one by the Chengdu-Chongqing, Chengdu-Kunming, Sichuan-Guizhou and Guiyang-Kunming railways.

Shortly after, the Xi’an-Ankang Railway squeezed through the Qinling Mountains, whereas Neijiang-Kunming Railway climbed an impressive height of 1300 metres.

And the famous Chengdu-Kunming Railway travels through one of the most complex landforms and steep terrains in China, which is referred to as a ‘geology museum’ owing to the frequent occurrence of earthquakes, landslides and mudslides.

There was a heated debate regarding the route during the planning phase of the Chengdu-Kunming Railway. Soviet experts strongly recommended the Central Line plan, which was the shortest and easiest to construct. But the Chinese government was more focused on reaching coal and steelworks plants, as well as opening up areas where most ethnic minorities live.

After careful consideration, the Chinese government decided to build the West Line, which was the longest and would travel across the most dangerous landforms. Nonetheless, the Chinese eventually delivered the hardest route that was ‘absolutely unsuitable for railway construction’ by building 991 bridges and 427 tunnels in the mountains.

There is one more mountain railway running in the southeast. Once the only railway connecting Fujian with the rest of the country, the Yingtan-Xiamen Railway tunnels through the Wuyi Mountain and aims for the Xiamen Strait.

In the northwest, a railway crosses the Yellow River three times and traverses the Tenggar Desert. Travelling between Baotou and Lanzhou, this Baotou-Lanzhou Railway was the first desert railway in China.

To reach Beijing, one can travel east on the Baotou-Lanzhou Railway and change to the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway. For more than 100 years, the latter has remained a household name because of the legendary achievements of Zhan Tianyou, chief engineer of the railway — the first in China to be completed without any foreign assistance.

The alternative route for Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, which was reluctantly scraped by Zhan Tiaoyou because of production cost and time constraint, was finally completed half a century later. This second passage between Beijing and Zhangjiakou is today known as the Fengtai-Shacheng Railway.

To the west of Baotou-Lanzhou Railway, there is the Linhe-Hami Railway which brushes the China-Mongolia border and crosses Gobi Desert, and the Southern Xinjiang Railway which runs right through the Tianshan (literally ‘Mountain of the Heavens’) at an elevation of 3000 kilometres and connects Turpan and Kashgar.

As well as the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which treks the Kunlun Mountains, Tanggula Mountains and the permafrost on the Tibetan Plateau.

Thanks to them, the vast plains in the northwest and the Tibetan Plateau can remain closely connected to the capital regions. Together with the railroads in the southwest, they are the vital border passages for China.

That marks the completion of the five major railroads that radiate from Jing-Jin-Ji Metropolitan Region to all key regions in the country.

But the Chinese were not stopping there.

A major railroad running from the west to east across the midlands of China was completed in 1953. This is the Longhai Railway. From east to west, it runs between Lianyungang in Jiangsu and Lanzhou in Gansu, and is a crucial transportation route between the Yangtze Delta and the northwest regions.

And with the completion of Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway, the Longhai Railway extended further west and rolled out of China through the Dzungarian Gate in Xinjiang. Travelling all the way to the distant Atlantic coast, this passage is widely known as the New Eurasian Land Bridge.

The east-west railroad between Shanghai and Kunming finally took form when the entire Zhuzhou-Guiyang Railway was opened in 1975, which merges the railways between Shanghai and Hangzhou, Zhejiang and Jiangxi, and Guiyang and Kunming.

Another east-west railroad meanders up the Yangtze River, connecting Shanghai, Nanjing, Hefei, Wuhan, Chongqing and finally Chengdu. With several branch lines leaking out, this railroad takes care of the southwest regions and the midstream and downstream of the Yangtze River.

South China regions were not left out of the party.

The Litang-Zhanjiang, Guangzhou-Maoming, Nanning-Kunming and Chongqing-Guiyang Railways were built successively between 1955 and 2017, joining the southwest and the Pearl River Delta together. This completes the comprehensive network radiating from the two river deltas

The construction of Nanning-Kunming Railway was particularly challenging. It climbs more than 2000 metres travelling from the Nanning basin to the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. Along the way are sparsely populated regions with countless canyons and complex geological structures. Constructing a railway here was impossible without building bridges and excavating tunnels, which together account for almost 86% of the total mileage of the railway.

As the Nanning-Kunming Railway approaches Yiliang in Yunnan, it encounters and intertwines with the Kunming-Haiphong Railway which is more than 80 years older, like a pair of good friends from different generations sharing stories of their own eras.

Coming on stage next is the southwest-northwest railroad. The Baoji-Chengdu Railway completed in 1958 hikes the Qinling Mountains on the 27 kilometres long spiral clusters.

Half a century later, the Chongqing-Lanzhou Railway, completed in 2017, simply punches through the mountains with a 28-kilometre tunnel. These two railways overcome the Qinling Mountains from the east and west and have become the backbone for the southwest-northwest railroad. The route into Sichuan is no longer ‘dauntingly impossible’.

Owing to the integration of this railroad with the larger network in China, northwest provinces including Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia have become an important transportation hub that is closely connected to the southwest, inland and the coast.

It took more than 140 years for Chinese railroads to start from zero, and grow from a few to many. Today, they are responsible for transporting steel, coal and timbers.

And connecting cities, towns and villages.

There are 12 general speed railroads in total, forming an enormous and intertwined network that spans the whole country.

But establishing an elaborate railroad network was never a smooth sailing. Before achieving the configuration we see today, China’s railroad had to go through another tough period.

2. Go faster, and even faster!

In 1993, China’s economy was riding on an express train, and saw an annual GDP growth of 13.9%. Unfortunately, neither passengers nor goods were on this train. Instead, they were stranded on the 60,000-kilometre railroad on which trains travelled only at 48 km/h. This travel speed was in stark contrast to the country’s astonishing economic growth rate, and even more so to the Japanese Shinkansen, which already achieved an average speed of 166 km/h and a maximum speed of 200 km/h 30 years earlier.

The opening up and reform policy further catalysed the mass migration into all the major cities along the coast, where people abandoned their hometowns and fought for their dreams. The scale of nation-wide population mobility inflated rapidly, and the inadequacy of the existing railroad system became ever more apparent. Particularly during the Spring Festival travel seasons, it was practically impossible to get a ticket even with hundreds of extra temporary trains in operation.

In worst cases, the railroad system had to prioritise passengers over goods, which consequently dragged freight transportation into the same matter. This sadly coincided with the explosive growth in steel and coal production, both of which completely overwhelmed the growth in rail transportation capacity for goods. As a result, coal had to be transported on highways or sold locally.

But this is a world where only the fittest survives. With the abrupt rise of highways and domestic flights, passengers made the obvious choice. The old and worn railroad system was taking its last breath.

The last hope to turn the tide rested on the shoulders of railway speed upgrade programmes.

The Guangzhou Shenzhen Railway was the first to exceed a 160 km/h speed, which invited other sections to join the speed-up experiment, including the Shanghai-Nanjing, Beijing-Qinhuangdao, Shenyang-Shanhai Pass and Zhengzhou-Wuhan Railways. With the Shaoshan 8 locomotive coming into service, the first train in China to run at 240 km/h finally started operating on the Zhengzhou-Wuhan Railway.

The outcome of the preliminary speed upgrade was encouraging. Thus, the first China Railway Speed-up Campaign officially commenced on 1 April 1997. Starting with the three major routes, namely Beijing-Guangzhou, Beijing-Shanghai and Beijing-Harbin Railways, the campaign delivered 78 routes with a maximum speed of 140 km/h, which were capable of ‘leaving in the morning and arriving before sunset‘. They immediately reversed the plunging trend for passenger volume in the following year and secured the first victory for railroad system in years.

The subsequent speed-up campaigns progressed in full swing, and were completed in 1998, 2000 and 2001 respectively. The mileage involved reached 13,000 kilometres, which accounted for almost 20% of China’s total mileage.

The maximum speed of these trains were 160 km/h. Can it be even faster?
Glad you asked.

Since the conclusion of the fifth speed up campaign on 18 April 2004, four of the major routes, including Beijing-Shanghai, Beijing-Guangzhou, Beijing-Harbin and Longhai Railways, successfully hit the 160 km/h mark for freight transportation. And for passenger lines, the Z-series trains (Zhida-Tekuai, ZT, or literally ‘direct express’) started speeding at 200 km/h, which was just one step away from being classified as high-speed railway.

It was also this year when the exciting master plan of ‘Four Vertical and Four Horizontal’ railroad network was announced. This grand blueprint of China’s high-speed railway network was all ready for another major revolution.

On 8 December 2005, the very last steam locomotive in China proudly accomplished its final mission.

Just under two years later, the world-famous Hexie (literally ‘Harmony’) series high-speed trains were introduced to the world. Dashing at 250 km/h on 18 railways, they raised the total high-speed railway mileage in the country to more than 6000 kilometres almost overnight. From then on, China owns the longest high-speed railway network in the world.

That concludes the chapter of railway speed upgrade, which lasted 10 years and completely renewed the railroad configuration in China. The glorious mission of ‘going even faster’ is now passed on to the high-speed railways.

3. High-speed Railway Era

Right before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a brand new railway station with a glass dome ceiling rose from the grounds of southern Beijing less than 2 kilometres away from the Central Axis of the capital city.

This is the Beijing South Railway Station.

Born at the same time was the first high-speed railway in China to ever achieve a design speed of 350 km/h. Shuttling between Beijing and Tianjin, it spends merely 30 minutes for a one-way trip. This means that when you say goodbye to your friend and board one of these C-series trains, you will most likely arrive in another city 120 kilometres away before your friend even reaches home.

The dazzling outcomes of the sixth speed-up campaign was fully reflected by the achievements of this Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway, which further stimulated the unstoppable development of high-speed railway in China. By the end of 2009, the Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan and Hefei-Wuhan Railways that run horizontally, and the Ningbo-Wenzhou-Fuzhou and Wuhan-Guangzhou Railways that run vertically were all completed and started operating.

Among them, the Wuhan-Guangzhou Railway leads the world of high-speed railway by spanning more than 1000 kilometres and running at a maximum speed of 350 km/h. What used to take 44 hours 70 years ago on the Guangzhou-Hankou Railway is nothing more than a 3 hour journey today on the Wuhan-Guangzhou Railway. We are embracing a whole new world.

Before the famous Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway joined the club, the 350 km/h squad had already welcomed 3 other members, which are the Zhengzhou-Xi’an, Shanghai-Nanjing and Shanghai-Hangzhou High-speed Railways.

With the ground work for the ‘Four Vertical and Four Horizontal’ network in place, China’s ultimate railroad dream was gradually taking form. But which of these 8 backbone routes would be the first to run on full scale?
There was not even one better alternative.

Between Beijing and Shanghai, the old Beijing-Shanghai Railway has for a long time struggled to keep up with the ever-growing population and prospering economy, especially when both the passenger and freight volumes here are several times higher than the national average. High-speed railway is basically a must. Despite so, the construction of Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway somehow managed to spark intense controversy then.
Nevertheless, it did not disappoint us. Just 3 years after its completion, its annual passenger volume already exceeded 100 million.

It also attained an experimental speed of 486.1 km/h on an operating railway, a record that remains unchallenged worldwide till this day.

After that, the ‘Four Vertical’ backbone gradually acquired its full form with the completion of the Beijing-Wuhan section of the Beijing-Guangzhou High-speed Railway.

The Harbin-Dalian High-speed Railway which travels through the frozen lands of blizzards.

And the Hangzhou-Fuzhou-Shenzhen High-speed Railway that meanders along the southeast coast.

The ‘Four Horizontal’ network is also constantly maturing.

Spreading out in parallel, these four east-west railroads explore the mountains and valleys in the southwest.

And progress up the Yangtze River.

They also climb the Loess Plateau, speed across the Gobi Desert, tunnel through the Taiheng Mountain and run all the way to the coast.

The connecting lines between the major routes are equally adventurous. The Guizhou-Guangzhou High-speed Railway, operating since 2014, was built on karst landforms, where complex terrains like sinkholes and caves are the norm.

The construction of Xi’an-Chengdu High-speed Railway was also extremely challenging. It runs through 11 tunnels that are all longer than 10 kilometres, and the climbing in elevation was touching the upper limit of modern railways. Completed in 2017, it was the first railway to traverse the Qinling Mountains.

The grand goal of constructing 16,000 kilometres of high-speed railway was achieved towards the end of 2014, which was 6 whole years earlier than planned. It was just a matter of time before the ‘Four Vertical and Four Horizontal’ network could run in full scale to show its true value, but Chinese engineers were still not satisfied. They pushed the plan further, and devised the even more visionary and ambitious railroad blueprint known as the ‘Eight Vertical and Eight Horizontal‘ network.

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One hundred years ago, when China was enduring the hardships of railroad pioneering, Sun Yat-sen had said, ‘in today’s world, no country can thrive without railroads (今日之世界，非铁道无以立国)‘.

A century later, Chinese responded to this proposition by delivering an enormous and intertwined railroad network, which is comprised of 102,000 kilometres of general speed railway and 25,000 kilometres of high-speed railway. It has become China’s steel skeleton today, capable of transporting 3.7 billion tons of goods and 3 billion passengers around the country every year*.

*Based on data from 2017 Statistical Bulletin on China’s Railway

This is a brief history of China’s railroad told by the 140 years of ups and downs.
It is also a diary about the rejuvenation of China written by railway tracks.

The team would like to express their utmost respect to all railway engineers, workers and photographers.

Production Team
Text: 桢公子
Editing: 王昆，余宽，张天尧
Review: 风沉郁

References
历次《中长期铁路网规划》
孙永福主编《中国铁路建设史》
中国铁道博物馆《中国铁路发展史掠影》
高铁见闻《大国速度》等