Raw data on China’s high-speed railway investment would bring out the trainspotter in anyone. The current 7,531km of track is more than the rest of the world put together. A journey from Wuhan to Guangzhou that used to take more than 10 hours by the 1,068km conventional route, now takes less than three. (A similar-length journey in the US, from Washington DC to Chicago, takes 18 hours on Amtrak.) Within a decade or so, the government wants to connect 70 of China’s main cities, servicing more than 90 per cent of the population.
有關中國高鐵投資的原始數據,會讓所有人都成為火車愛好者。中國目前7531公里的高鐵里程比全世界其它地區加起來都要多。武漢與廣州相距1068公里,過去乘坐普通火車需要10多個小時,而現在只要不到三個小時。(從華盛頓特區到芝加哥的里程與此類似,但乘坐美國鐵路公司(Amtrak)的火車需要18個小時。)中國政府希望,高鐵網絡能在十年左右的時間里覆蓋國內70個主要城市,為超過90%的人口提供服務。