
China's high-speed rail network continues to expand at an extremely rapid pace, and the latest sections opened have brought the total length of lines to more than 50,000 kilometers, meaning that China now has a high-speed train network longer than all other countries in the world combined.
According to China State Railway Group, which operates the country's railway system, China's high-speed rail network now exceeds the combined length of all other national systems of its kind.
According to local media, the symbolic 50,000-kilometer mark was broken with the opening of the new Xi'an-Yan'an line, which is 299 kilometers long. The line has cut the travel time between the two cities from almost two hours to just one hour.
China State Railway Group states that high-speed rail now covers up to 97 percent of Chinese cities with more than 500,000 residents, and that the Chinese network accounts for more than 70 percent of the world's total high-speed rail infrastructure, which currently totals about 65,000 kilometers, Newsweek writes.
Among the most important lines are the Beijing-Guangzhou line, more than 2,000 kilometers long, which connects the capital with the south of the country, as well as the extremely busy Beijing-Shanghai line, on which Fuxing trains operate at commercial speeds of up to 350 kilometers per hour.
In just two days, China opened three new high-speed rail lines totaling 1,082 km. #ChinaSpeed
— Li Zexin 李泽欣 (@XH_Lee23) December 23, 2025
????️ Dec 22:
???? Guangzhou-Zhanjiang: 401 km
???? Shantou-Shanwei: 162 km
????️ Dec 23:
???? Baotou-Yinchuan: 519 km
Among the new lines, the second has beautiful coastal views. https://t.co/2RIJH9Af0s pic.twitter.com/ujrrEg9he2
China is also testing a new generation of trains that could further shorten travel times between major urban centers. This is the CR450 model, prototypes of which during testing, according to data from the Chinese Academy of Railway Sciences, reached a speed of up to 896 kilometers per hour, which is a new record.
Lin Jian, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also spoke about this achievement, stating that the development of high-speed railways is not only a matter of speed and volume, but also of connecting people, regions and the future.
Chinese authorities have announced that the goal is to expand the high-speed rail network to 70,000 kilometers by 2035. At the same time, Beijing is financing railway projects in other Asian countries through the “One Belt, One Road” initiative, seeking to strengthen regional connectivity, trade and political influence.