BEIJING, (Xinhua) — China’s newly opened high-speed railway sections will help promote cross-city collaboration and closer regional economic ties, boosting the flow of talent, technology and capital across regions, experts said.
On Monday, China opened four major high-speed railway sections spanning northern, northwestern, central and northeastern regions. This move further expands the world’s largest high-speed rail network, enhancing connections between major cities, city clusters and key economic zones across the country.
“The opening of the four lines will promote industrial transformation and upgrading and cross-regional industrial transfer, boost the development of resources along the routes, and inject new momentum into coordinated regional economic and social development,” said Yuan Baohua, deputy director of the construction department of China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.
Each of the four new sections helps bind regions closer together. The Xiong’an-Shangqiu section, for instance, tightens ties between Xiong’an New Area and central-southern Hebei, southwestern Shandong and eastern Henan, while the Harbin-Yichun line extends the two-hour transportation circle centered on Harbin in northeast China, Yuan said.
As the rail network turns from isolated lines into an interconnected web, regional cooperation is deepening, according to Ma Botao with the China Railway Economic Planning and Research Institute.
Ma said the expanding network is bringing cities and city clusters much closer together. Commuting within metropolitan areas now takes about one hour, living and working across city clusters about two hours, and business travel between neighboring city clusters and provincial capitals around three hours.
“The railway network closely binds large and small cities, making industrial division of labor and cross-city employment the norm,” he said.
The benefits of the network extend beyond the areas directly along the new lines. For instance, the Yichang-Xingshan section narrows the time-space distance not just between the two cities, but between the Chengdu-Chongqing region and the city cluster in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Ma said.
The new lines also provide direct support for key national strategies. Noting that the Xiong’an-Shangqiu section fills the gap in Xiong’an New Area’s southbound high-speed rail corridor, Liu Yanhong, deputy general manager of Xiong’an high-speed railway corporation, said that the line facilitates commuting and business exchanges for relocated enterprises and institutions, and supports stronger industrial cooperation along the route.
For cities newly connected to the network, seizing the opportunity depends on how well they position themselves. “Generally, large cities focus on research and development, finance and headquarters economy, while small cities should leverage their local agriculture, ecology, tourism and distinctive industrial strengths to undertake supporting manufacturing, agricultural product processing, and wellness and cultural tourism, serving as both industrial supporting bases and leisure backyards for central cities,” Ma said.
To turn transport advantages into real development gains, Ma advised cities to strengthen connections between high-speed rail stations and industrial parks as well as major population clusters, and improve housing and public services for talent.
China is home to the world’s largest high-speed rail network, with more than 50,000 km of high-speed rail in operation by the end of 2025. Under national plans, the network is projected to expand to 70,000 km by 2035, connecting major cities, city clusters and key economic zones throughout the country.
