World’s Longest High-Speed Rail Line Opens in China
China opened the world’s longest high-speed rail line late last month, with plans for the routes to reach Hong Kong in the next few years.
The bullet train line extends from Guangzhou to Beijing and covers a distance of 2,298 kilometers (1,428 miles) at an average speed of 300 kilometers per hour (186mph), completing the journey between Guangzhou and Beijing in a mere eight hours. Previously, the fastest train in the country took over 20 hours to travel between the cities. The high-speed line currently stops through 35 cities, including provincial capitals like Shijiazhuang, Wuhan, Changsha and Zhengzhou. Service is frequent, with 155 pairs of trains running in either direction daily. Plans of the rail line's extension to Hong Kong are currently in progress.
Despite being marred by controversy—specifically, safety concerns and debt accumulation—spending on construction has helped boost employment and drive economic activity through critical slumps, namely the global financial crisis and the sharp domestic economic slow-down last summer. A variety of factors have propelled the rail line as a strong competition for the Chinese airline industry; these include the relative low-cost of train tickets, its speed, and public perception of trains being more reliable.
While the flying time between Beijing and Guangzhou is just over three hours, traveling on a bullet train may make for a more attractive option for travelers, owing to the amount of time spent in transit in airports as well as travel costs from airports to city centers.