China's high-speed rail network in operation totaled 7,735 km at the end of October, ranking it first in the world in terms of the size of its high-speed infrastructure, said an official from the Ministry of Railways on Tuesday.

The country has made a series of technological breakthroughs in constructing high-speed railways and in other major fields such as heavy-duty and high-latitude rail transport, the unidentified official said on the sidelines of Modern Railways 2012, an international railway exhibition hosted by the ministry and opened on Tuesday in Beijing.

At the exhibition, the country's two biggest train manufacturers -- China CSR Corp. Ltd. and China CNR both displayed new exhibits. China CSR showcased its test trains that can travel at over 500 km per hour, and China CNR exhibited its self-developed fast intercity trains -- CRH3A.

A total of 263 companies from 16 countries and regions including the United States, Germany and France participated in the exhibition.

China aims to create a high-speed railway backbone featuring four east-west lines and four north-south lines by the end of 2015, under a five-year plan on China's transport system approved by the State Council, China's cabinet.

The country's total length of high-speed railway is expected to reach about 18,000 km by 2015.

The world's first high-speed railway in areas with extremely low temperature, which runs through three provinces in northeastern China, started operation on Saturday as part of the country's efforts to revitalize the old industrial base.

Four trains with the initial of "G" left the stations in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang, Changchun, capital of Jilin, Shenyang, capital of Liaoning, and Dalian, port city in Liaoning, simultaneously at 9 am Saturday to mark the operation of the 921-km line.

The high-speed railway with designed speeds of up to 350 km per hour went into service after passing a two-month test during which the region had been hit by blizzards and harsh cold as low as 40 degrees Celsius below zero.

"The operation of Harbin-Dalian high-speed railway signals a great progress in the building of a 'four-vertical' and 'four-horizontal' high-speed rail network," said Lu Chunfang, vice minister of the Ministry of Railways.

So far, China has 8,600 kilometers of operating high-speed railways, ranking it first globally.

Convenient Travel

Sixty-seven pairs of trains will shuttle daily on the new Harbin-Dalian line.

The longest train between Harbin and Dalian on the line will take just three hours when the train runs at an average of 300 km per hour.

Trains will run between Shenyang and Harbin at hourly intervals, and between Shenyang and Dalian at half-hourly intervals.

The first CRH380B train to leave Shenyang North Station on the line on Saturday was fully loaded with some 500 passengers.

Passenger Zhan Hongge, a train enthusiast, said he bought the train fare as a memento.

"The Harbin-Dalian Railway was first built by Russians and Japanese 100 years ago, and it was used as their colonial tool to control northeast China. Today, the operation of China's independently developed high-speed railway is a testimony to the nation's revival," he said.

The high-speed rail track runs parallel with the old line, on which 105 pairs of trains will still shuttle daily.

Fares for the high-speed railway, although higher than those of regular trains on the old line, are much lower than for cross-province coaches.

Economic full steam ahead

As the railway helps realize "half-day travel" within the three provinces, it is expected to bring vitality to the "industrial corridor" linking the heavy chemical industry in Heilongjiang, automobile manufacturing in Jilin and the heavy machinery base in Liaoning as well as the sea outlet of Dalian.

SHENYANG -- The world's first high-speed railway in areas with extremely low temperature, which runs through three provinces in northeastern China, started operation on Saturday as part of the country's efforts to revitalize the old industrial base.

Four trains with the initial of "G" left the stations in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang, Changchun, capital of Jilin, Shenyang, capital of Liaoning, and Dalian, port city in Liaoning, simultaneously at 9 am Saturday to mark the operation of the 921-km line.

The high-speed railway with designed speeds of up to 350 km per hour went into service after passing a two-month test during which the region had been hit by blizzards and harsh cold as low as 40 degrees Celsius below zero.

"The operation of Harbin-Dalian high-speed railway signals a great progress in the building of a 'four-vertical' and 'four-horizontal' high-speed rail network," said Lu Chunfang, vice minister of the Ministry of Railways.

So far, China has 8,600 kilometers of operating high-speed railways, ranking it first globally.

Convenient Travel

Sixty-seven pairs of trains will shuttle daily on the new Harbin-Dalian line.

The longest train between Harbin and Dalian on the line will take just three hours when the train runs at an average of 300 km per hour.

Trains will run between Shenyang and Harbin at hourly intervals, and between Shenyang and Dalian at half-hourly intervals.

The first CRH380B train to leave Shenyang North Station on the line on Saturday was fully loaded with some 500 passengers.

Passenger Zhan Hongge, a train enthusiast, said he bought the train fare as a memento.

"The Harbin-Dalian Railway was first built by Russians and Japanese 100 years ago, and it was used as their colonial tool to control northeast China. Today, the operation of China's independently developed high-speed railway is a testimony to the nation's revival," he said.

The high-speed rail track runs parallel with the old line, on which 105 pairs of trains will still shuttle daily.

Fares for the high-speed railway, although higher than those of regular trains on the old line, are much lower than for cross-province coaches.

Economic full steam ahead

As the railway helps realize "half-day travel" within the three provinces, it is expected to bring vitality to the "industrial corridor" linking the heavy chemical industry in Heilongjiang, automobile manufacturing in Jilin and the heavy machinery base in Liaoning as well as the sea outlet of Dalian.

Zhou Li, director of the railway ministry's department in charge of technology, said in addition to easing a passenger transport bottleneck, the railway allows for an additional 11.5 million tonnes of cargo to be transported through the northeast China region per year.

Travel agencies have also placed high hopes on the new line boosting winter travel featuring skiing, ice sculpture and sea food.

Agency China Comfort Travel has mapped out high-quality travel routes in the three provinces, to capitalize on an anticipated "travel boom" in the winter snow sport season arriving with the operation of the highs-speed railway.

Wu Hongjian, head of the Liaoning Provincial Tourism Board, said the railway will usher in an era of "barrier-free travel" in the far-flung northeast China region.

Technical concerns

Running in temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius, the new line's safety requirements have drawn wide attention.

"In trial operation, trains ran as fast as 385 km, proof of the line's reliability," according to Zhou Li, technology official with the Ministry of Railways.

He said the ministry has conducted 22 research projects to target technology obstacles, including steady monitoring of the track condition to cope with the wide range of temperature differences in different seasons.

Still, to minimize the impact of extreme weather on operation, the ministry has created two schedules. Train speeds during the winter season (December 1 to March 31) will be limited to 200 km per hour, with the summer period (April 1 to November 30) allowing up to 300 km per hour.

Before the Harbin-Dalian line, the world had three high-speed railways running in frigid regions, including in Northern Europe and Russia, but they cannot match the length nor rapidity of China's new line. The three lines add up to a total length of less than 700 km. On the fastest of them, which links Moscow and St. Petersburg, trains can only run at a top speed of 250 km per hour for a maximum of about 20 minutes. MORE HIGH-SPEED RAILWAYS

China is aiming to create a high-speed railway backbone featuring four east-west lines and four north-south lines by the end of 2015, under a five-year transport plan approved by the State Council, China's cabinet.

The Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway will open for service next month.

The country's total length of high-speed railway is expected to reach about 18,000 km by 2015. 

A new passenger rail line connected China's easternmost county of Fuyuan to inland areas Tuesday, and it is expected to boost the economy and tourism in the China-Russia border town.

A three-month passenger service trial was launched after a 169.4 km-long stretch of track was extended to the county from Qianjin Township, Heilongjiang Province, which has been linked by railway with Harbin, capital city of Heilongjiang.

Over the next three months, two passenger trains will run between Fuyuan and Harbin daily. Each trip takes about 17 hours.

The passenger service is expected to increase the number of passengers to the border town to 1 million annually, said Bo Xiru, director of the Heilongjiang provincial tourism bureau.

The railway, the eastern end of which terminates just 12 km from the Russian border, will help to increase visitors and boost tourism in Fuyuan and the border island of Heixiazi (Bolshoy Ussuriysky), said Song Kui, a researcher at the Heilongjiang provincial academy of social sciences.

The tranquil border town is the first place to see the sun rise in China, and it also boasts a well-protected wetland and scenic spots at the confluence of the Heilongjiang (Amur) and Ussuri rivers.

Locals refer to Heixiazi Island, located at the intersection of the Heilongjiang (Amur) and Ussuri rivers, as the "Fuyuan Delta."

China and Russia ended a century-long dispute over the region and held a border redrawing ceremony on October 14, 2008, declaring that each side owned half of the 335 square km island.

In November 2010, the two countries agreed to cooperate to develop the island into an eco-tourism zone. In July 2011, China opened its half of Heixiazi Island to tourists.   

Ticket services of the world's longest high-speed rail line began operations in China on Thursday, with passengers able to travel between two major economic metropolises in the north and south within eight to ten hours, China's leading business newspaper Economic Daily reports.

The nearly 2,300 km railway line between Beijing and Guangzhou will be put into service on December 26 this year. Ticket prices range from 865 yuan to 2,727 yuan for the train, which runs at a maximum of 300 km per hour. For the 250 km/h train, the price is between 712 yuan and 2,130 yuan.

The rail line will stop over in Zhengzhou and Wuhan in central China, one the capital of China's Henan Province and the other an emerging second-tier city and a transport pivot along the Yangtze River.

Some Guangzhou locals say the bullet train tickets enjoy a slight competitive edge over air tickets. For instance, discounted air tickets from Guangzhou to Beijing could be as low as 930 yuan, including 50 and 130 yuan for airport construction and fuel surcharges, some 60 yuan higher than a new high-speed train ticket.

Sources close to China's railway authorities say high-speed trains will be much more attractive to passengers during China's New Year transportation rush between January and February, when air travel prices begin to skyrocket.

Guangzhou, the provincial capital of China's reform and opening up trailblazer Guangdong Province, has more than 6 million migrant workers out of a city of 14 million. Every year, during the Spring Festival, many of them go back to their hometowns for family reunions, mostly by train.

The sources also believe that travelers will opt for a high-speed train during the rainy season in south China, as plane delays are common.

However, news commentator Zhang Bin for China National Radio points out that the price of the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed train is beyond his expectations, more than twice of that of a regular train. He believes this will discourage many traditional train passengers, including the low-income groups. It will also be a waste of resources if the train operates with empty seats.

He says people frustrated by the new rail tickets may consider traveling by air.

At present, many airline companies operating between Beijing and Wuhan, such as Chang Southern, China Eastern and Air China, have rolled out record low tickets in response to the new bullet train services, including tickets worth 150 yuan, excluding airport construction fees and fuel surcharges of 180 yuan.

Some airliners also cancelled their flights between Shijiazhuang and Changsha, two cities closer to Beijing and Guangzhou respectively. 

The world's longest high-speed rail route, running from the Chinese capital Beijing to Guangzhou in the south, will open for business on December 26, state media said Saturday.

Travelling at an average speed of 300 kilometres (186 miles) per hour, the line will slash journey times linking Beijing in the north with the country's southern economic hub from 22 hours to eight hours, the China Daily newspaper said.

The December opening means the 2,298 kilometre route, with 35 stops including major cities Zhengzhou, Wuhan and Changsha, will be operational for China's Lunar New Year holiday period, in which hundreds of millions of people travel across the country in the world's largest annual migration.

The specific date was chosen to commemorate the birth of Chinese leader Mao Zedong, state media said.

China's high-speed rail network is booming. Only established in 2007, it has quickly become the largest in the world, with 8,358 kilometres of track at the end of 2010 and expected to almost double to 16,000 kilometres by 2020. 

A high-speed railway between Beijing and Guangzhou will open in two weeks' time, the Chinese Railways Ministry said yesterday. It will offer the longest bullet-train ride in the world and cut the journey time between the two cities to less than eight hours.

When services begin on December 26 - the 119th anniversary of the birth of late Communist Party patriarch Mao Zedong - the 2,298-kilometre (1428 miles) line will eclipse the high-speed railway between Beijing and Shanghai. That 1,318-kilometre (819 miles) route opened in June last year.

It will connect the Pearl River Delta to the nation's political centre, and link the capitals of four land-locked provinces - Shijiazhuang , Hebei ; Zhengzhou , Henan ; Wuhan , Hubei ; and Changsha , Hunan , where the pace of economic growth has surpassed that of some coastal regions.

It will eventually allow high-speed trips between Beijing and Hong Kong, after the Shenzhen-Hong Kong high-speed link's completion, scheduled in 2015.

Trains will run at 300km/h (186 mph), although they are designed for speeds of up to 350km/h.

The shortest journey time between Beijing and Guangzhou will be less than eight hours, compared to three hours by air.  

A pilot cargo train recently set a new record for covering the vast distance between China and the Czech Republic. The train, carrying 50 containers with computer parts arrived in the Czech city of Pardubice just 16 days after it set out from central China. Will more such trains follow in the near future? And does it mean that trans-Asian railway transport is now competitive with deep see routes?

The train covered the distance of 11,000 kilometres between the Chinese city of Wuhan and Pardubice in the Czech Republic in 16 days, travelling nearly 700 kilometres each day of the journey. Crossing Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland on its way, the train carried fifty containers of computer parts to the Czech factory of the multinational electronics maker Foxconn. From the Chinese border onwards, the cargo train was operated by the Swiss company Interrail. Pavel Lagov is the director of strategy and business development for the firm’s Russian branch.

“I wouldn’t say it was the very first experience for our company because some months ago, we moved some containers between Shanghai and Switzerland just to prove to our customers that technologically, the route is operational and we can do the job. But when it comes to block trains, it was a first for us. In fact, we were the first as far as I know to reach the Czech Republic within 16 calendar days.”

The ground-breaking cargo train set off from the capital of the central Chinese province of Hubei on October 24. Six days later it reached the Chinese-Kazakh border where the cargo had to be reloaded onto a train of a different gauge. The journey across Kazakhstan took four days, and it took the train another five to cover the territories of Russia and Belarus. On day 15, the train reached the Polish border where it was reloaded again. It reached its final destination a day later, in the record time of 16 days. Pavel Lagov from Interrail says the pilot project provided the firm with an opportunity to test the feasibility of the route, and test a new system of clearing the customs.

“We have offices at the borders which are responsible for the processing of the documents. As soon as the train was dispatched from Wuhan, we knew we would have approximately five days to get the paperwork done. We sent all the railway bills, invoices and packing lists for the entire train to the border.

“Our people went through them with the customs officials, corrected the few discrepancies and when the train arrived, all the documents were almost ready, they were stamped, and the train did not wait for a single minute longer.”

Although shorter travelling time is the railway’s biggest advantage compared to sea routes, the method of transport is still too expensive for most companies.

“If cargos are transported by ship from China to Europe, the transit time would be approximately 42 or 45 days and the price per one 40-ft container would be over between 5,000 and 5,500 US dollars. Moving cargo by train, the transit time significantly decreases. Depending on the destination in Europe, it might be between 16 and 25 days. But the speed comes with a price unfortunately. The approximate price would be between 8,600 and 8,900 US dollars per container.”

That’s a price the customer – in this case, Foxconn – was willing to pay. But regular railway transport of cargos from China to Europe would not be feasible without subsidies from the Chinese government, says Lagov.

“Railway routes are still non-competitive in comparison with deep sea shipments. Therefore, the Chinese government, knowing that very well, subsidizes these railways deliveries because it understands very well that without subsidies, the prices would be much higher.”

The Swiss-based InterRail is optimistic about the future of trans-continental railway transport. But what do other European train operators think of it? I asked Petr Lochman, who is executive director of the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies, a lobby group.

“The price is one factor, the other is technical compatibility along the journey. There are different gauges along the line; it of course depends on whether you go through the Russian territory or through Turkey, Azerbaijan. Bu that decision also affects the travelling time. And there are also the parameters of the line which is something you have to take into account as well.

“We have dispatched some pilot trains, this is all possible. But you have to set up special conditions for the train journey which is something that’s not available under normal circumstances. So there is still a lot of improvement that needs to be achieved before we come to more regular services between China and Europe.”

The company AWT is Europe’s largest private provider of rail freight services. The firm’s external affairs director, Petr Jonák, says railway transport needs a push to become competitive in the long run.

“It’s a proof of outside-the-box thinking. I’m a bit sceptical about regular rail freight transport across Asia to Europe in the short term. But over the mid- and long term, this is the way companies, countries, the EU, and all the stakeholders should think and develop the whole segment.”

For the time being, however, European train providers are faced with more immediate problems. Railway’s share in freight transportation in Europe has been declining over the last few years. In many countries, including the Czech Republic, private rail transport providers have to follow lengthy bureaucratic procedures to have their trains approved for operation. Lobbyist Petr Lochman again.

“We have a company, NTV, that operates trains in Italy. It took them more than three years to authorize one high-speed train. So it’s an expensive exercise, and it’s an obstacle for any competition. The whole business is relatively capital intensive, and if you have to add the costs for authorization, it makes it almost impossible. Instead of doing that, you will switch your business to another transportation mode, possibly road, because it’s much cheaper.”

The European Commission is preparing new legislation, referred to as the fourth railway package, which should facilitate these procedures. It should also allow for more competition in railway transport which is for historical reasons dominated by state-owned firms. Keir Fitsch is from the cabinet of the European Commissioner for Transport.

“Firstly, we will hopefully have a much larger research programme in the new financial period. We work with manufactures to actually develop railway products which will make railway attractive.

“But the most important thing is addressed in the fourth railway package which we are adopting towards the end of the year. It will actually ensure that railways have competition internally which will allow people who want develop new services, who want to innovate, to do so.”

Private rail transporters also complain of high fees that the state-owned railway companies collect for letting them use their tracks. In the Czech Republic, this had led to a situation when most private freight trains bypass the country, according to Petr Jonák of AWT.

“The rail fees in the Czech Republic are now the highest in central and Eastern Europe. They are higher than in the neighbouring countries, in Germany, Poland, Austria and Slovakia, and this is a real problem. For operators of transit transport across more countries, it’s quite easy to avoid the Czech Republic and take their trains through those countries.”

However, the Czech railway market has seen some interesting developments, mainly in the passenger segment. Two private operators – RegioJet and Leo Express – have launched regular services. The authorities have also announced that railway fees would decrease next year to make railway transport more competitive. Petr Jonák hopes railway will see a boom similar to that which air travel registered more than a decade ago.

“We expect that the railway market will in the coming years go through something similar to what air transportation experienced in the 1990. That would mean huge development, liberalization and the unbundling of private companies like AWT in freight transport in Central Europe, or Leo Express and other Czech private companies in passenger transport. They will enter the state-owned domain and will bring a new level of efficiency.”  

Over High-Speed RailwayIn a rarely seen event, Chinese officials in Beijing allowed a group of around 300 demonstrators to participate in a protest against the building of a high-speed railway from the capital to the northeastern city of Shenyang.
Protests in China, particularly in the political capital, are taken very seriously by police and officials. Demonstrations of any kind typically end in arrests and sometimes injury before activist groups get a chance to cause any real disruption.

However, Reuters reported a group of Beijing residents congregated on Dec. 9 for a rally against new plans for the high-speed rail line because of the excess noise and electromagnetic radiation the new tracks and power lines would bring to their eastern Beijing suburb.

According to Chinese news source QQ News, the rail line is understood to affect dozens of residential areas in Beijing's Chaoyang district. Several buildings are reported to be as close as 100 meters (328 feet) to the tracks, and one building as close as two meters (6 feet).

The completed Shanghai-Nanjing line has some residents worried: "I look along the Shanghai-Nanjing high-speed railway, residents reported an unbearable roar; very frightening," one Beijing resident said.

The protest disrupted a lot of local traffic when the group, comprised mostly of middle-class Chinese, briefly blocked an intersection, all under the eye of the police, before peacefully dispersing later in the afternoon.

So, is China learning the social practice of a peaceful protest?

Not quite.

Images from the protests on Chinese media suggest the protests were less peaceful than initially described as physical contact between protestors and police officials was made. Though police presence was still comparatively subdued at the scene, some protesters were confronted by plain-clothed policemen.

A report published on the Ministry of Environmental Protection's site said the Beijing-Shenyang high-speed rail had garnered the support of 37.27 percent of the local residents, a number that some protesters believe is inaccurate.

One man named Zhang told Reuters that he believes he was one of the people the government accounted for as approving of the construction.

"I only knew this line was planned two weeks ago when I got a letter from the government thanking me for my support," Zhang said. "But neither I nor any of the other residents support this. They are inventing things."

The lack of a heavy-handed reaction to the protests from police forces is likely the government's way of allowing for citizens to express their anger and taking credit for a more open China.

Chinese government officials did not respond to the allegations of the fabricated approval reports, but they would not be out of the realm of possibility. However, China's commitment to the development of infrastructure, particularly rail systems, has been unwavering, and construction likely would have continued with or without the approval of local citizens.  

Cautious Growth Predicted for Rail Investment
Fixed asset investment in China's railroads will rise slightly from this year's level and will not exceed ￥700 billion, the China Securities Journal reported, citing people with knowledge of the issue. The Ministry of Railways has revised up railway FAI three times to ￥630 billion for this year, including ￥516 billion in rail infrastructure.

Deutsche Bank Optimistic Over China Growth
China's growth in gross domestic product will quicken back to 8% in 1H 2013 and rise even faster at 8.5% in 2H 2013, Deutsche Bank predicted. However, the faster growth will likely stock inflation up to 4% and therefore prompt interest rate rises in late 2013 or early 2014, the bank added. The bank also forecast the Chinese currency to gain 2% to 3% in value against the US dollar next year.

China World's No 1 Energy Saving Service Market
Output from China's energy saving service industry is expected to hit ￥200 billion this year, making the country the world's biggest market in this field, the China Energy Conservation Association said. The amount almost doubles last year's ￥125 billion.

4 Wind Farms Greenlighted
The National Development and Reform Commission gave approvals to the establishment of four wind farms estimated to cost a combined ￥57.2 billion as China works to use more clean energy to generate electricity. Close to seven million kW wind power capacity will be installed in the four projects.

Grain Production Rises for 9 Years in a Row
China's grain production will amount to 589.57 million tons this year, marking the ninth straight year of increase, Xinhua reported. The increases will reinforce self sufficiency and national food security, Xinhua says.
 

With the time for bidding for Thailand's high-speed train projects growing closer, China is aggressively lobbying the government to select its train and construction technology.

Chinese authorities claim their products could save substantial costs.

Chinese Deputy Railways Minister Lu Chunfang yesterday told Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra that its construction costs average only US$20 million per kilometre compared with $81 million in Japan and $50 million in Germany.

Government spokesman Tosaporn Serirak yesterday said China has also convinced the government of its advanced construction technology and safety measures.

It is also committed to hiring Thai workers to handle the construction.

Mr Lu was quoted as saying China has long and vast experience in high-speed train construction that prevents accidents. Its systems run in different temperature areas and landscapes.

According to China's proposals, Thailand's system could be developed with two levels of speed - 300 kph and 250 kph - and fares.

Tickets for the faster trains would cost about 2.50 baht per person per km, while those for the slower train would be 2.10 baht per person per km.

Thailand and China signed a memorandum of understanding on April 15 to conduct a feasibility study for the Bangkok-Chiang Mai and Bangkok-Nong Khai high-speed rail links.

Transport Minister Chatchart Sithipan and Mr Lu met on Thursday at the second meeting of the joint steering committee for rail development.

Mr Chatchart said China has shown its intention to invest, particularly in the 615-km Bangkok-Nong Khai route.

That route could be used to transport goods, while China would later build a railway to link it with Dawei port in Myanmar.

The route is a strategic rail link in the Mekong subregion, as it can link Laos, Chon Buri's Laem Chabang Port, Cambodia and Myanmar. 

Railway authorities have moved to reassure residents who oppose a new high-speed rail link in North China that construction will not be approved until after a full feasibility study and public consultation are completed.

According to plans for the 709-km Beijing-Shenyang line, the route will pass several communities in the capital's Chaoyang district, including Lidu Yihao and Kabu Qinuo.

However, residents have raised strong objections to the project, saying they are concerned about safety and noise, as well as an environmental assessment posted online in November that suggested 40 percent of them are in favor of the link.

On Dec 9, around 300 people took part in a protest to call on the authorities to change the proposed route.

In response, the Ministry of Railways' preparatory team for the link in Beijing and Hebei province issued a statement on Monday, stating that it is still weighing public opinion.

"Construction of the Beijing-Shenyang rail line will not begin unless a solution can be agreed on by most of the residents," the statement said.

An official, who declined to give his name, told China Daily that a feasibility study is ongoing and the project has adhered to the strict regulations put in place by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Plans released by the Third Railway Survey and Design Institute Group show the proposed line will carry trains at speeds of up to 350 km/h, cutting the travel time between Beijing and Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province, to around two hours. Construction is scheduled to begin in June.

However, residents were angered in November when an environmental impact assessment published online said almost 40 percent of residents surveyed had approved the route.

Many people disputed the figure, with Web forums for communities along the proposed route inundated with comments objecting to construction of the railway.

One resident posting under the name Jingshen Aihaozhe on a forum for the Kabu Qinuo community, said he had heard residents mention a questionnaire about the project but did not know anyone who had received it.

"The route must be built far from any area with a dense population. This will affect my child's health," wrote another, who said he believes the train would spell the end of his quiet life forever.

Jia Limin, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University, said noise problems related to the railway can be easily solved with advanced technology.

"If the route is not changed after the process is complete, the authorities can invest more in noise reduction," he said.

Eager passengers

In contrast to the protests in Beijing, many people in Liaoning are eager to see the high-speed rail project get under way.

"If residents in the capital have concerns, they can negotiate with the authorities, but it should not affect construction in other sections," said Kong Xiangfeng, 28, who is looking forward to a quicker journey to his hometown in Liaoning.

"After all, this link can bring great benefits to people. I hope the project can be developed as soon as possible."

However, Wang Cailiang, a Beijing real estate lawyer, said he is glad to see officials are taking the public's objections into consideration. He said he hopes the project will be revised to protect the rights of residents living along the route.

"The railway will be convenient for people traveling between Beijing and Shenyang, and bring great economic benefits to the cities, but it should not come at the cost of those whose homes are near the line," he said.

Zhao Jingwei, an attorney specializing in environmental law who is currently working on the high-profile Bohai Bay oil spill lawsuit, agreed with Wang, and said the assessment and development of the railway should be carried out in a legal manner.

"The assessment can reflect residents' suggestions and ideas, which cannot be superficial or become formalistic," he said, adding that if the government cannot deal with the concerns, the project will bring more potential danger.

According to Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, despite the importance of environmental impact assessments, they are not given proper consideration in China.

The lack of rights relating to being properly informed and able to participate is why environmental impact assessments are poorly implemented in China, he said.

"Environmental impact assessments have been in China for around 30 years," he said. "However, due to poor implementation and frequent violations, they have not really made a difference."

Ma said in many cases, the public is partly or totally ignorant of environmental impact assessments because the authorities only allow some 10 days to gather public opinion, which is only one-tenth of the period of information gathering in the United States.

"It's impossible for the majority of affected residents to get to know about the project and make their voices heard in 10 days," said Ma, adding that public opinion cannot be ignored.
 

In the Chinese city of Nanchang, where the local government is building a new subway network, the modern train station rising out of the red earth sits in an empty part of town. The crowds that Nanchang envisions will someday use its metro are nowhere in sight.

Nanchang's population of three million -- relatively small by China's standards -- and the municipality's finances raise questions about the subway's viability and makes the city a case study of the risks China takes when it relies on investment to power growth.

"In the future, when we need to sustain growth, we need to come up with even bigger investment projects," said Zhang Zhiwei, a Nomura economist. "This is not sustainable."

As the world's second-biggest economy limps to its weakest full-year expansion in 13 years, Beijing has leaned once again on a tried-and-tested model of ramping up investment, this time in subways, bridges and other infrastructure, to aid growth.

To do this, the government has accelerated approvals for investments that were already planned, in the hope that this will be a more measured way of supporting the economy than the 4 trillion yuan ($640.87 billion) stimulus program unleashed during the global financial crisis, which sparked widespread construction spending by local administrations and a hangover of debt.

In just six months this year, Beijing has approved the building or expansion of metro lines in 23 Chinese cities. Nanchang, in eastern China, is one of the smallest cities building a subway system.

Nanchang's government says the network will meet the needs of a growing population, which it expects to increase 15 percent by 2015, that will put it on the map as a "big city".

But critics see it as an extravagance that underlines China's need to consume more and invest less.

The city plans to build two subway lines over 51 km by 2015 at a cost of 27.4 billion yuan - 10 percent of its 2011 GDP and 67 percent of 2011 fiscal revenues.

More investment will follow in three additional lines stretching 117 km by 2020.

"This is not something that if you want today, you can have tomorrow," said Wang Chaohua, a deputy general manager at the Nanchang Railway Transit Group. "A subway line will burnish Nanchang's branding as a big city."

The International Monetary Fund, most private economists and even the central Chinese government, agree the country needs to move away from investment-led growth.

Economists say investment this year will account for half of China's GDP, little changed from its 49 percent contribution in 2011. More developed economies rely on consumption for 60 percent to 75 percent of their economic activity.

The risk in relying on investment for growth is that it can create waste, such as roads to nowhere, build up bad debt, strain state coffers and stifle domestic consumption.

IMF researchers estimated in November that China over-invests at a cost of 4 percent of GDP a year -- or the equivalent of $303 billion -- and said it needs to reduce investment by 10 percentage points of GDP to keep its economy stable.

In the town of Lehua in west Nanchang, some locals have come to a similar conclusion as the IMF, at least in the city's case, where investment accounted for 74 percent of its GDP in 2011.

On a recent weekday afternoon when there was more poultry on the streets than people, a local grocer doubted the new subway will draw enough commuters to make the investment worthwhile.

"There are few people here. It has been this empty for 10 years," said Wan, declining to give her full name. "The economy just can't develop."

DEEP DEBT

Critics of China's infrastructure spending cite the 10.7 trillion yuan in local government debt accumulated after the 2008/09 financial crisis as evidence of potential risks. Up to a third of that could be non-performing debt, analysts say.

In Nanchang, the government had a budget surplus of 11.2 billion yuan in 2011, thanks to transfers from Beijing and revenues from land sales. But analysts say that figure is misleading.

Like many of its peers, Nanchang's government uses shell companies -- or financing vehicles -- to borrow on its behalf to fund off-budget expenses and pump-prime the local economy.

Public records show Nanchang's government has at least two such financing vehicles, which are both deeply in debt.

The Nanchang Municipal Public Investment Holding Co. Ltd had total debt of 13.5 billion yuan in 2011, nearly 28 times its operating cash flows.

The second, Nanchang City Construction Investment Development Co. Ltd., had negative cash flows of 155.6 million yuan last year and total debt of 10.6 billion yuan.

Such debt means loan defaults could spike if the economy stalls, says Fitch Ratings, which has a negative outlook on China's AA minus sovereign local currency rating.

That said, while metro lines are costly and tend to provide low returns at best, not all Chinese subway plans are unwise.

Supporters of the investment growth model note there is room for more investment despite the splurge of the past five years.

In China, investment in capital goods per person is only 6 to 7 percent that of the United States, a 2011 study by GaveKal-Dragonomics, a macroeconomic consulting firm shows. Infrastructure spending is a big component of overall capital investment.

Extending subway lines to sparsely populated areas that may be future high-density neighborhoods allows cities to plan their urban environment before it is too late, said Gerald Ollivier, a transport specialist at the World Bank.

Doing so now can save costs as subway lines become more costly to build as economies grow, he said, stressing that each subway project needs to be reviewed on its own merit.

That would certainly fit with Beijing and Shenzhen, which were ranked by IBM's Global Commuter Pain Survey as the second- and third-most congested places in the world last year, trailing only Mexico City.

The trick, argues Zhao Jian, a professor at Beijing's Jiaotong University, is for China to allow no more than 20 of its biggest cities to build subways to minimize any losses. Such a ranking would exclude Nanchang.

Whatever the economics, costs do not necessarily concern a lot of Chinese. Chen Lianying, a 58-year-old cleaner at the subway station construction site in west Nanchang, says her home is just a 20-minute walk away so she returns for lunch every day.

"Of course it's good to build a subway line. It's time we people enjoy life," she said.