Railway triumphs towards revival

Yellowed train tickets, old signal lights, rusty tracks... Stepping into the Zhengyangmen Exhibition Hall of the China Railway Museum is like entering a time tunnel, where the quietly displayed cultural relics and historical materials, along with pictorial records, narrate the vicissitudes of China's railway development. Today's China is crisscrossed with railways, high-speed trains are in full swing, and natural barriers have become thoroughfares. From a "sparse network of roads" to the "world's most modern railway network and the most developed high-speed rail network," the tremendous changes over the years witness the path to rejuvenation.

Before the founding of New China, the Chinese land was traversed by steam locomotives from various countries and models, earning the nickname "Expo of Locomotives from All Nations." Liu Jia, Deputy Director of the Zhengyangmen Exhibition Hall of the China Railway Museum, introduced, "At the beginning of the founding of New China, the total mileage of the national railway network was only 21,800 kilometers, with a small number, uneven distribution, mixed standards, and poor quality. Only about 11,000 kilometers were able to maintain operation. In December 1949, the Ministry of Railways of the Central People's Government was established, marking the beginning of a new journey for the development of the people's railways."

The Chengdu-Chongqing Railway was the first trunk railway built after the founding of the People's Republic of China. "In the year I turned that age, the army assigned me to help build the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway. This railway, they talked about building it during the Qing Dynasty, but it didn't happen; during the Beiyang government, they said they would build it, but it didn't happen either; the Kuomintang government also said they would build it, but again, it didn't happen; after the founding of New China, the Communist Party came to build the railway, and we came to build it!" Retired Chengdu Railway Bureau employee Sun Yisun deeply felt when talking about the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway. This line, which spans kilometers in total length, was completed and opened to traffic in just two years from the start of construction, not only ending the ancient lament of "the road to Shu is difficult," but also opening a new chapter in the large-scale construction of new railway lines in China.

In the year, the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge spanned the river, becoming the first rail-cum-road bridge over the Yangtze River; in the year, the Chengdu-Kunming Railway emerged from the vast mountains, an engineering feat of unprecedented difficulty, praised by the United Nations as one of "the three great miracles of the 20th century symbolizing human conquest of nature"... By the year, the total operating mileage of the national railway network reached 146,300 kilometers, with the basic framework of the network largely established. Meanwhile, domestically produced steam, diesel, and electric locomotives as well as passenger and freight vehicles were successively developed and formed into a series of products.

Reform and opening up have driven the great development of the railway industry. Starting from the century years, our country organized a series of railway construction campaigns, with key projects such as the Datong-Qinhuangdao Railway, Beijing-Kowloon Railway, and Beijing West Station successfully completed. We overcame the three major challenges of "perennial permafrost, high altitude hypoxia, and fragile ecology," and extended the Qinghai-Tibet Railway into the snowy plateau. In 2008, the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway began operation, followed by the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway, Zhengzhou-Xi'an High-Speed Railway, Shanghai-Nanjing High-Speed Railway, and Shanghai-Hangzhou High-Speed Railway, ushering China into the era of high-speed rail. By the end of 2019, the total operating mileage of railways nationwide had reached 139,000 kilometers, with high-speed rail operating mileage reaching 35,000 kilometers.

Entering a new era, in response to the needs of national economic development, China's high-speed railway development has entered a fast lane. By the year, the "Four Vertical and Four Horizontal" high-speed rail network was completed and operational, making China the only country in the world with a fully operational high-speed rail network. Subsequently, the high-speed rail network was further densified and extended to the central and western regions, incorporating more cities into the national high-speed rail network, thus constructing a dense network with the "Eight Vertical and Eight Horizontal" as the main channels, supplemented by regional connecting lines and intercity railways.

Driving high-speed trains across the vast land of our motherland, train driver Han Junjia, who is this year old, couldn't help but express his heartfelt feelings: "The first driver's license of my career was for a steam locomotive. When I drove a diesel freight locomotive in , the maximum speed was only 60 kilometers per hour. At that time, I never imagined that trains could reach speeds of 350 kilometers per hour, but now we can run at 350 kilometers per hour." From 1988 to the present, Han Junjia has driven 10 types of train models and obtained 10 railway locomotive licenses, witnessing the six generations of locomotive changes in China's railways. Today, China's high-speed railway operational mileage exceeds 40,000 kilometers, making it the only country in the world to commercially operate high-speed trains at speeds of 350 kilometers per hour. "Riding high-speed trains to see China" has become a true reflection of people enjoying a beautiful journey.

"High-speed rail is a shining emblem of China's equipment manufacturing," "A successful example of China's independent innovation is high-speed rail," "High-speed rail technology sets an international benchmark," President Xi Jinping has repeatedly praised high-speed rail with deep affection, commending its advanced technology. China's high-speed rail has grown from nothing, evolving from introduction, digestion, absorption, and re-innovation to independent innovation, and now leads the world.

Just like building a house, foreigners already have a certain prefabricated structure, with doors, windows, cement, and other components in place, requiring only assembly. Initially, we started from making bricks and smelting iron. Zhao Hongwei, a key member of the Fuxing high-speed train R&D innovation team and chief researcher at China Railway Science Corporation Limited, used this analogy. At the end of the year, the former Ministry of Railways took the lead, uniting domestic production, academia, research, and other units, mobilizing hundreds of core supporting enterprises across the entire industry chain to jointly initiate the research and development of China's standard EMUs. After more than a year of technical research and independent innovation, the Fuxing EMU, with complete independent intellectual property rights and world-leading level, was successfully launched in 2017. It was under the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, fully leveraging the institutional advantages of socialism in concentrating resources to accomplish major tasks, that China's high-speed rail achieved a "curve overtake" in a relatively short time.

The people's railway serves the people; "China in motion" has both speed and warmth.

Strolling through the exhibition hall of the Zhengyangmen Exhibition Hall of the China Railway Museum, a reporter noticed that a display board titled "Running Public Welfare 'Slow Trains'" attracted many visitors to stop and observe. The public welfare "slow trains" are characterized by low ticket prices and frequent stops, serving the needs of rural residents along the route for travel, market visits, commuting, and medical treatment. Currently, these "slow trains" cover provinces, stop at stations, pass through ethnic regions, and serve key counties and cities in rural revitalization.

On the specified date this year, the Longlong High-speed Railway section from Meizhou West to Longchuan West commenced operation, marking a milestone as China's railway operating mileage surpassed 100,000 kilometers. In the new era, China boasts the longest high-speed railway operating mileage, the fastest commercial operation speed, the highest passenger traffic and turnover, and the largest cargo traffic and turnover in the world.

From a bird's eye view, the vast land of China is crisscrossed with dense road networks, with trains speeding along. One railway after another connects mountains and seas, compresses time and space, more closely linking the vast expanse of the Chinese land, unfolding a magnificent new picture of modernization.

Journalist's Notes:

China's railways have evolved from catching up with the times to leading them, successfully solving one "unsolvable problem" after another, transforming one "impossible" task into a reality. In the journey towards national strength and the rejuvenation of the nation, they have struck up a magnificent anthem of hard work, self-reliance, and innovative progress.