VIDEO: China’s Way Is the Best Way

You don’t have to work hard if you know how to work smart.

You must focus your energy into finding a way to get things done in a simple and quick manner.

Chinese engineers have found a way to work smart and fast.

Their high-speed rail is an example of how to build.

According to Wikipedia, the network consists of newly built passenger-dedicated lines (PDLs) and intercity lines along with upgraded mixed passenger and freight lines. According to the definition by Chinese government, high-speed rail service only refer to new PDLs at speed of more than 250km.

The newly built PDLs currently account for 22,000 km (14,000 mi) of service routes, a length which takes two-third of the world’s high-speed rail tracks. The addition of PDLs and other high speed lines is ongoing with the network of PDLs alone set to reach 38,000 km (24,000 mi) in 2025.

High-speed rail service in China was introduced on April 18, 2007 and has become immensely popular with an annual ridership of over 1.44 billion in 2016, making the Chinese HSR network the most heavily used in the world.

Notable lines include the world’s longest line, the 2,298 km (1,428 mi) Beijing–Guangzhou High-Speed Railway and the Shanghai Maglev, the world’s first high-speed commercial magnetic levitation line and the only non-conventional track line of the network.

Nearly all high-speed rail lines and rolling stock are owned and operated by the China Railway Corporation, the state enterprise formerly known as the Railway Ministry, which has overseen the HSR building boom with generous funding from the Chinese government’s economic stimulus program.

The pace of high-speed rail expansion slowed for a period in 2011 after the removal of Chinese Railways Minister Liu Zhijun for corruption and a fatal high-speed railway accident near Wenzhou, but has since rebounded.

Though the system as a whole is considered successful, concerns about HSR safety, high ticket prices, financial sustainability and environmental impact of high-speed rail continue to exist for several projects.

China’s early high-speed trains were imported or built under technology transfer agreements with foreign train-makers including Alstom, Siemens, Bombardier and Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Since the initial technological support, Chinese engineers have re-designed internal train components and built indigenous trains manufactured by the CRRC Corporation.

State planning for China’s current high-speed railway network began in the early 1990s. In December 1990, the Ministry of Railways (MOR) submitted to the National People’s Congress a proposal to build a high-speed railway between Beijing and Shanghai.

At the time, the Beijing–Shanghai Railway was already at capacity, and the proposal was jointly studied by the Science & Technology Commission, State Planning Commission, State Economic & Trade Commission, and the MOR.

Policy planners debated the necessity and economic viability of high-speed rail service. Supporters argued that high-speed rail would boost future economic growth. Opponents noted that high-speed rail in other countries were expensive and mostly unprofitable.

Overcrowding on existing rail lines, they said, could be solved by expanding capacity through higher speed and frequency of service. In 1995, Premier Li Peng announced that preparatory work on the Beijing Shanghai HSR would begin in the 9th Five Year Plan (1996–2000), but construction was not scheduled until the first decade of the 21st century.