How China has changed over the past decades can be judged by the development achievements it has made. One of the most straightforward ways to appreciate that is perhaps to look at the country’s network of high-speed railways.

New services commenced on four new lines — Xi’an-Yan’an, Shanghai-Chongqing-Chengdu, Wuhan-Yichang and Hangzhou-Quzhou — on Friday. That brings the total length of the high-speed railways in operation in the country to over 50,000 kilometers, more than the length of all the high-speed railway lines in the rest of the world put together.

The national network of high-speed railway lines now embraces 97 percent of cities with a population of more than 500,000.

Travel between cities within the radius of 500 kilometers by high-speed rail takes between one and two hours, and a trip between cities within the radius of 1,000 kilometers takes about four hours.........

© The Frontier Post (Editorial)