Chinese railway authorities said Saturday that the country's railway system has geared up for the upcoming post-holiday travel rush in addition to snow and rainfall in the southern regions.

The Ministry of Railways (MOR) said in a statement on its website that it organized 815 additional trains Saturday to cope with increasing passenger flow, up from 672 on Friday.

Millions of people have begun returning to cities for work as the week-long holiday ends Saturday. On Friday, more than 5.8 million passenger trips were made on Chinese railways, according to the ministry.

More passengers have chosen railways due to continued precipitation in the south, putting more pressure on the country's rail system, it said.

Snow and rainfall in south China is likely to continue until Jan. 30, causing slippery or icy roads, as well as low visibility, the China Meteorological Administration said Saturday.

The Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, which fell on Jan. 23 this year, is the most important Chinese holiday for family reunions, making it a hectic time for China's public transportation system.

More than 104.8 million passenger trips had been made on Chinese railways during the annual travel rush this year, which started on Jan. 8 and will end on Feb. 16, up 5.1 percent year-on-year, said the MOR.

China's railway investment in infrastructure in the first month of 2012 decreased by 76 percent year-on-year to 8.7 billion yuan, hitting the lowest point since 2009, the Economic Information reported Thursday, citing statistics from the Ministry of Railway (MOR) website.

The railway fixed-asset investment reached 12.2 billion yuan, down 69.6 percent from the same period last year, according to MOR.

Wang Mengshu, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told the newspaper that the sudden decrease in railway investment is partly because many construction projects were stopped during the Spring Festival. Many funds were not in place, he added.

At a State Council executive meeting presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday, it was pointed out that private capital was encouraged to enter sectors like the rail industry.

Wang said allowing private capital into railway construction is beneficial as the infrastructure construction of railways needs huge amounts of money. However, good allocation plans and profits must be ensured in order to attract the private capital, he added.

Construction has started on a railway extension that is hoped will ease the transport strain in a plateau salt lake area in west China, one of the country's two key potash fertilizer bases, local officials said Saturday.

The 25.3 km-long rail extension that will link the base of Zangge Potash Co Ltd in Qaidam basin, Qinghai province, with the Qinghai-Tibet railway, will have the capacity to carry 3.5 million tons of fertilizer each year, officials said.

The rail project, estimated to cost 260 million yuan ($41.6 million), is managed by China Railway First Survey and Design Institute Group Ltd.  It is expected to be finished by the end of August.

China widely uses potash fertilizers for farming. In 2011, the country produced 4.7 million tons of potash fertilizers but imported another 3.78 million tons to meet domestic demand, according to data released by a fertilizer industry association of China.

Qaidam and the Lop Nor in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region are China's two major potash production bases. But both are located in the country's remote and underdeveloped northwestern region.

Visitors to Xi'an, an ancient city with numerous historical sites in northwestern China, will soon be able to appreciate the city's heritage as they travel by train six to 10 meters above ground.

Construction of the 9.3-km rail is expected to be completed by April, local authorities said.

The trains on the railway line will pass several of the northwestern city's most famous scenic spots, including the Grand Wild Goose Pagoda, which is a 1,360-year-old Buddhist pagoda, the Tang Paradise, a large royal-garden-like theme park, as well as a lake park and a Tang city wall relics park.

Construction of the 11-stop railway line started in April last year.

Xi'an, one of the oldest cities in China and capital of Shaanxi province, is home to the world-famous Terracotta Army. In ancient times it was called Chang'an, and was the eastern terminal of the Silk Route.

The city opened its first metro line in September 2011 and plans to complete six more lines by 2018 -- part of its ambitious plan to build itself into a metropolis in the country's relatively undeveloped western region.

Commuters on the Beijing subway, which has opened 11 of its 15 lines in the past five years, experience mostly trouble-free journeys every day. There are very rarely any delays and a journey is a clean and efficient 21st century experience.

Passengers on London's commuter trains coming in from the Home Counties often do not know to what century they belong. Some of the lines were constructed in the Victorian age and much of the tatty rolling stock often appears of a similar vintage.
The UK, like other countries in Europe and the United States, needs investment not just in its rail and road network but also in other infrastructure assets, such as water utility and power generation companies.

With austerity measures being introduced across the world, money is tight for such projects - China, however, is showing an increasing appetite for investment in infrastructure assets.

Unlike investing in US Treasury bonds, such investments are unlikely to destabilize international currency markets and they are also assets that can deliver a steady income over a 30- or 40-year lifecycle.

Lou Jiwei, chairman and chief executive of China Investment Corporation (CIC), the $410 billion (310 billion euros) sovereign wealth fund, could not have been clearer of his intentions.

In an article in the Financial Times in November, he said investing in infrastructure was a "win-win" solution for China and those seeking funding.

"Infrastructure is under-invested in European countries and the US Infrastructure represents a suitable choice for sovereign wealth funds to invest directly or through fund managers, with the aim of seeking stable and sound financial returns," he argued.

Lou based his assessment on UK Treasury figures saying that it needed 200 billion pounds ($315 billion, 238 billion euros) of investment in energy, water, transport and other projects by 2015 and also those of the American Society of Engineers, which estimates the US needs to spend $2.2 trillion on its infrastructure.

Following Lou's article, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne made a much-publicized visit to Beijing in January looking for Chinese investment in among other things, HS2, the planned high-speed rail link from London to the UK's second city Birmingham.

"We welcome further Chinese investment in UK infrastructure opportunities in the coming decade," Osborne said ahead of a meeting with Lou.

Within hours of Osborne's homeward bound plane leaving the tarmac, CIC announced on Jan 20 it was taking an 8.6 percent stake in Thames Water, the utility company that supplies London its water.

China's focus is not just the UK, however. On Feb 2, China's State Grid Corporation with Oman Oil, the Gulf-based oil company, bought a 40 percent stake in REN, Portugal's national grid operator, for 592 million euros ($778 million).

This followed the move in December by Three Gorges Corporation, a Chinese State-owned power company, to invest 2.7 billion euros in Energias de Portugal, the country's leading power company, making it its largest minority shareholder with a 21.35 percent stake.

Many believe China will soon turn its attention to the United States, which has been reluctant to accept foreign investment in major strategic infrastructure assets.

With the US still recovering from the financial crisis, such an isolated stance might soon begin to seem self-defeating.

China's financial help may be needed to build major infrastructure projects and, in particular, its nascent high speed rail network.

Roelof van Ark, chief executive officer of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, is one who says he is open to CIC taking a slice of the action.

China's infrastructure involvement may not prove to be just a financial investment or supplying labor in some developing countries - over the past 15 years, no country in the world has built more roads, railways, ports, power plants and other major installations.

Two Beijing-Shanghai high-speed trains have been canceled and some have been delayed due to dense fog sweeping east Tianjin city and central Hebei province Wednesday morning.
According to the Beijing Railway Administration's blog on Sina Weibo, air traffic is also affected as thick fog has blanketed Shanghai Pudong International Airport since 9 a.m. (local time) on Tuesday, and it was not completely dispersed until 7 a.m. (local time) on Wednesday.

More than 150 flights have been delayed or diverted to alternative airports due to the poor visibility and eight of them, carrying about 1,500 passengers, landed at Qingdao airport in east Shandong province, Xinhua news agency reported
Wednesday, citing the blog as saying.

In the southernmost island of Hainan, Haikou Meilan International Airport has been closed due to the fog, according to operators.

The shipping service connecting the island to the mainland across the Qiongzhou Strait has been suspended since 1:20 a.m. (local time) on Wednesday by local maritime authorities.

The National Meteorological Center warned at 8 a.m. (local time) on Wednesday of heavy fog in central and eastern China, with visibility reduced to less than 200 meters in some areas.

The Ministry of Railways said Thursday that an estimated 220 million passengers traversed the country's railways during this year's 40-day Spring Festival travel rush.

Railways transported 216 billion passengers during the first 39 days of the travel rush, which lasted from Jan. 8 to Feb. 16, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

Passengers were able to purchase train tickets online or via telephone for the first time this year, allowing them to avoid long lines and ticket scalpers.

The Spring Festival holiday, which brings with it the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year, began on Jan. 23 this year. Hundreds of millions of Chinese, mainly migrant workers and college students, travel home during the holiday every year to reunite with their families.

With 3,500 kilometers of new high-speed railways expected to be put into use this year, the length of China's high-speed railways will exceed 10,000 kilometers, a senior railway official said.

Insiders said the construction of high-speed railways, which was halted due to funding shortage, will resume this year.

Yang Zhongmin, director of the planning department of the Ministry of Railways, said that all four of the planned North-South rail arteries for China's high-speed rail system will be complete, according to People's Daily on Thursday.

One of the four arteries, the Beijing-Shanghai line, opened in June. The others will connect Beijing and Guangzhou in South China, Beijing and Harbin in Northeast China, and cities on the southeast coast with high-speed railways.

Though a section of rail between Xiamen and Shenzhen will not be finished this year, the four arteries will start operation and significantly cut travel time between major cities, Yang said.

For instance, train travel from Beijing to Shenzhen will take eight hours instead of the current 24 hours, and trips from Beijing to Harbin will take only five hours instead of nine.

China's high-speed rail sector was hampered by a funding shortage last year, when money from the government's 4 trillion yuan ($635 billion) stimulus plan dried up and the government's tightened monetary policy, after which the ministry was unable to get bank loans. More than 10,000 kilometers of high-speed railway projects were halted.

Wang Mengshu, a leading rail tunnel expert, said on Thursday that railway construction is expected to resume this year.

Wang, deputy chief engineer at China Railway Tunnel Group, told China Daily, citing a recent railway working conference, that the work on 6,000 kilometers of halted railway projects will resume this year and funds will be allocated gradually.

"The ministry will also begin nine new railway projects this year, but none of them are high-speed railways," he said.

An article posted on Feb 8 on the website of the Chongqing development and reform commission, a branch of China's top economic planner, supports Wang's statement.

According to the article, Lu Dongfu, deputy minister of railways, said at a meeting on Dec 30 that the ministry plans to spend 406 billion yuan on 249 infrastructure projects this year.

The money will be used to complete 63 rail projects, continue work on 177 others and begin nine new ones. Besides, the ministry would like to begin 53 other projects this year.

But Yang Hao, a railway professor at Beijing Jiaotong University, said that the 53 projects would need the approval of the National Development and Reform Commission before ground could be broken on them.

The ministry has stressed that the plan for infrastructure spending is "subject to changes", and experts believe that funding is the crucial factor that could determine whether the full plan is carried out.

Zhao Jian, another railway professor at Beijing Jiaotong University, said it remains unclear how the ministry will pull together 400 billion yuan because it has clear access to only 80 billion yuan from the railway construction fund and other sources. "And even the 80 billion yuan is not enough to pay off the interest generated by the 2 trillion yuan debt the ministry owes," he said.

China has planned to build a railway network of 120,000

Pranot Suriya, deputy director-general of the OTP, said the total budget for hiring the three consultants was Bt300 million. The three routes they will study are Bangkok-Phitsanulok, Bangkok-Nakhon Ratchasima, and Bangkok-Hua Hin. The OTP is drawing up the terms of reference for the bid. The studies are expected to begin in June and take 14 months to complete.

The rail project is to use a standard gauge of 1.435 metres. The trains will have a top speed of 250 kilometres per hour.

The studies will also examine feasible project investments and whether the trains will transport both passengers and goods or only passengers.

A Transport Ministry source said Team Consulting Engineering and Management was expected to be one of the winners of the bid, given that it has experience and has won many consultation deals from the OTP in the past.

Pranot said the government had yet to announce how it will proceed with the planned Thailand-China high-speed-rail project linking Bangkok with Nong Khai and Padang Besar, which was initiated by the previous Democrat-led government.

He said the government would which of the two projects it would prioritise, pending the completed feasibility studies.

Trade relations between China and Turkey will deepen in the coming years despite inevitable frictions, experts said.

"Trade frictions between China and Turkey are inevitable as bilateral trade volume expands and the global economic slowdown intensifies export competition between the two fast-growing economies," Li Guofu, director of the Center of Middle East Studies in China Institute of International Studies, told China Daily.

"But the bilateral trade prospects are broad and will not be affected by trade frictions as China's fast development also benefits Turkey," Li said.

Gong Xiaosheng, Chinese ambassador to Turkey, agreed with the promising future in Sino-Turkish cooperation.

"As strategic partners, China and Turkey will embrace comprehensive cooperation, and the potential of cooperation under international organizations, including the United Nations, is vast," Gong said when addressing the International Conference on China in the World Order and the Turkish-Chinese Relationship in Ankara on Feb 10.

China is the third-biggest trade partner of Turkey, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute. Trade volume between China and Turkey surged by 24 percent year-on-year to $24.2 billion last year. Trade is expected to reach $50 billion in 2015 and $100 billion in 2020, a goal set by Premier Wen Jiabao and his Turkish counterpart Recep Erdogan during his visit to Turkey in October 2010.

However, trade has not always grown smoothly. Turkey had launched 47 anti-dumping investigations against Chinese exports as of August 2008, in addition to six special safeguard measures and 18 general safeguard measures.

The trade remedy investigations ranged from machinery and textile products to lighters and zippers, which "drove some Chinese exports out of local markets or shrank the market shares dramatically", Jiang Mingxin, a researcher from the Institute of West Asian and African Studies in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, noted in an article.

Turkey's Ministry of Industry and Commerce extended an anti-dumping duty up to 35 percent against Chinese laminate floors for another five years in a review ruling on Jan 31 and extended a safeguard duty as high as 10 percent against Chinese cotton thread products in a review ruling on Jan 25, according to the Chinese embassy in Turkey.

Vice-President Xi Jinping started his visit to Turkey on Monday, and the visit is expected to "expand bilateral trade and advance cooperation on political issues as well as on anti-terrorism", according to Li.

Li suggested the two countries deepen negotiations and solve trade frictions through negotiations under World Trade Organization rules.

Chinese investments in Turkey are booming along with trade growth.

"At present, Chinese companies are carrying out smooth cooperation with Turkish companies in the fields of steel, mining, automobiles and energy," according to Gong.

China is one of Turkey's biggest mining investors and the biggest investor in marble in the country. The Bank of China and China Development Bank have established branches in Turkey, which will "provide financial support for cooperation in infrastructure and other fields", Gong said.

The second phase of the high-speed railway connecting Ankara and Istanbul is going well and China hopes to help Turkey build a high-speed railway across the Bosporus, connecting Europe and Asia.

Nearly 6,400 kilometers of new railways will begin operating in China in 2012, 3.2 times up year on year. The country will operate more railways this year than in any other previous year.

The country’s four north-to-south rail corridors recorded in the “Mid-to-Long-Term Railway Network Plan,” including the Beijing-Shanghai, Beijing-Guangzhou, Beijing-Harbin, Southeast Coast high-speed railways, will all begin operating this year except the Xiamen-Shenzhen section of the Southeast Coast High-Speed Railway. This will cut the train travel time between provincial capitals along the four railways by around 50 percent.

Furthermore, several regional intercity high-speed railways linking Wuhan and Yichang, Nanjing and Hangzhou, Hefei and Bengbu, and other cities will also begin operating this year.

The length of China’s high-speed railways will increase 3,500 kilometers this year, accounting for 55 percent of new railways that are expected to be put into operation this year. The total length of the country’s high-speed railways will exceed 10,000 kilometers by the end of this year.

The high speed railway between Beijing and Guangzhou will be completed by the end of 2012 and the total rail time will be cut to less than 8 hours according to reports from Nanfang Daily.

The newspaper quotes Yang Zhongmin, a senior official with the Ministry of Railways, as saying that the completion of this high speed railway will be a boon to passengers tired of the normal trudge from Beijing to Guangzhou.

The new high speed railway will be parallel with the existing rail between Beijing and Guangzhou, helping to ease transportation pressures and binding the economic zones of the Pearl River Delta, Bohai Bay and cities in central China.

The section from Zhengzhou to Wuhan will be in test run at the end of February and the section between Shijiazhuang and Zhengzhou will be tested in June. Also, the travel time from Beijing to Wuhan will be shortened to about 5 hours in total.

Merchants in Guangzhou hail the news and some have already began planning to extend businesses in Henan and Hebei provinces.

"I can get a round trip between Beijing and Guangzhou in a day," said a man surnamed Gao, who works in training and often travels between the two cities. "High speed trains are always on time. At least I will have a fall back plan that doesn't involve planes."

China will carry out a special campaign to check potential safety problems of high-speed trains this year, the country's work safety supervision authorities said.

The State Administration of Work Safety said in a statement on its website that it will work with the Ministry of Railways to have a safety overhaul.

On July 23, 2011, a high-speed train rammed into a stalled train near the city of Wenzhou in east China, leaving 40 people dead and 172 injured.

The decision of safety overhaul was made in accordance with the instructions given in an investigation report released in December by the State Council after the disastrous high-speed train crash.

The overhaul will cover high-speed railway signaling system, maintenance of trains, lightning-proof designs, employees' training and operating environment, the statement said.

With about 12 kilometers in length, the Xiamen section of the Xiamen-Shenzhen Railway is scheduled to open in late June, reports Strait Herald.

According to the related department, the Xiamen-Shenzhen high-speed railway is currently under construction and expected to be open to traffic by the end of this year or early next year. The travel time from Xiamen to Shenzhen by train will be shortened to 3 hours from the current 11 hours by that time.

With 502.4 kilometers in length, the Xiamen-Shenzhen high-speed railway which started construction on 23rd November, 2007, linking 2 special economic zones in China, Xiamen and Shenzhen upon the completion, is another important section of the coastal railway artery in China.

According to the latest plan, the Xiamen-Shenzhen Railway will connect the Fuzhou-Xiamen high-speed railway in the north, starting from Xiamen, running though Longhai, Zhangzhou, Zhangpu, Yunxiao, Zhao'an and ending at Shenzhen New Railway Station. Xiamen will become the largest hub of high-speed railway in Fujian upon its completion.

Good news has recently come from Chengdu Wangpai Commercial Vehicle Co., Ltd. that Hunan CSR Times Electric Vehicle Co., Ltd. CSR Times under CSR Zhuzhou Institute Co., Ltd. CSR ZELRI won an order for 14 sets of electric systems, a new one after the order for five 16t electric water sprinklers last year, marking a good start for the company’s system marketing.

According to sources, as a key market for CSR Times’ electric energy-conserving and new energy products, Chengdu has been drawing close attention from the company. Since entering Chengdu’s energy-conserving and new energy vehicle market in 2010, CSR Times has actively sought to optimize and innovate marketing means and strategies, has achieved brilliant results in market promotion, and won an order for 20 range-extended electric-driven hybrid city buses and an order for five special electric vehicles in Chengdu in 2011.