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Railways in

China

High Speed Train at Guangzhou South
CRH380A-0259 Vibrant Express high speed train of MTR at Guangzhou South station forming a service to Hong Kong West Kowloon.
At the next platform is a CR400BF train of China Railway.

The first railway line in China was a narrow gauge line between Shanghai and Woosung (Wusong). It opened in 1876 but was closed and lifted within two years. The first line to form part of the modern network was the 11km standard gauge (1435 mm) Kaiping Colliery Tramway near Tangshan, opened in 1881 as a private mineral line but later expanded to become part of the China Railway Company.

China now has an extensive network of mainly standard gauge railways serving most parts of the country, including several modern high speed lines.

International connections exist with the broad gauge systems of Mongolia, Russia and Kazakhstan, and with the standard gauge systems of Laos and North Korea. A feasibility study is under way for a new standard gauge rail link with Kyrgyzstan. A railway is under construction to Ruili near the border with Myanmar, where it is eventually planned to connect with a new standard gauge railway to Mandalay.

In 2023, a short standard gauge cross-border line was under construction connecting the existing railway at Hekou with the Vietnamese inland port of Lào Cai, where there will be interchange with the Vietnamese rail network, albeit with a break of gauge.

In 2025, construction began on the China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan Railway, a new international railway between Kashgar and Andijan, Uzbekistan. 158km of the line will be in China, between Kashgar and Kyrgyz border at the Torugart Pass. There will be a change of gauge at Makmal, Kyrgyzstan.

Main Line Railways

Narrow Gauge Railways

A number of early railways were constructed to narrow gauge, but most have subsequently been converted to standard gauge. In addition, there were many short narrow gauge railways for industrial purposes such as mining and logging. This section lists a few such railways believed to be still in operation.

Metros and Trams

Funicular

See also:

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Photo image by N509FZ from Wikimedia Commons