The Pan-Asia Railway

Chinese Railway Link to Asian neighbors

From Beijing you can go South to Hanoi, Vietnam or west to Astana, Kazakhstan. You could choose Ulan Bator, Mongolia or go to Harbin and Vladivostok, then on to Moscow via the trans-Siberian railroad. Having made the trans-Siberian trip in 1970, I would love to do it again today to see the changes.

Eurasian Rail Bridge?

The Trans-Asia Railway, or Eurasian Land Bridge (the trans-Siberian line is part of this) and the New Eurasian Land Bridge are components of railway networks designed to connect China to Europe through Central Asia. In fact, there is already regular freight service from Beijing to Berlin!

Reuters recently reported that Kazakh authorities have added another link to this project by launching a new line between Zhetygen and Korgas – completed last year.

There’s also a 223-mile high-speed rail link under construction to the North Korean border as part of three planned high-speed railways to connect China and North Korea – thus bringing the DPRK into the Eurasian Land Bridge and posing a strong incentive for South Korea, which would love to ship its goods to Europe by land.

According to Xinhua, the 253-km line from Lhasa, Tibet, to Xigaze should be completed by the end of this year. And talks are already underway about a link onwards to Nepal. Talk about exotic rail travel!

The most interesting scheme, however, is the plan to build a line between Vientiane, Laos, and Kunming, southern China, as a trade route between the two countries and as a link in a planned connection between China and Singapore. Singapore and China will probably combine forces to finance the cost of this line because its cost is almost as big as Laos’ $7 billion GDP!

Rail-wise, things are jumping on the Eurasian continent. Stay tuned. In the meantime, here's a personal look at one of the high speed trains:

The Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe International Railway

Posted on February 20, 2012 by China Briefing

By Julia Gu

Feb. 20 – Since separating from Southwest China’s Sichuan Province in 1997, the municipality of Chongqing has emerged as one of China’s fastest developing regions and is regarded by Beijing as the epicenter of the country’s “Go West” campaign.

Last year, the province-sized city with a population of 28.85 million attracted US$11 billion in foreign direct investment and its GDP grew 16.5 percent year-on-year to RMB920 billion (US$145 billion). According to the Chongqing municipal government, the city expects 13.5 percent GDP growth this year.

Chongqing’s officials attribute this tremendous economic growth largely to the city’s continually improving infrastructure, particularly its transport system.

Even just a few years ago, if trading companies in Chongqing wanted to send goods to Europe, they would have to first go through a coastal port city such as Shanghai or Guangzhou to then be shipped through the Straits of Malacca – which was both time-consuming and expensive. In addition, some sections of the shipping route warranted serious safety concerns.

Inspired by the “New Silk Road” (also known as the New Eurasian Land Bridge or the Second Eurasian Continental Bridge) that connects Lianyungang Port in Jiangsu Province with Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Antwerp in Belgium, Chongqing’s government leaders in July 2008 brought about a plan to make use of the continental railway network to open up a trade channel for the city.

This ambitious plan manifested itself in the form of the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe international railway, which officially came online on July 1, 2011. The new route starts from Chongqing and arrives in Duisburg, Germany – covering 11,179 kilometers in 16 days. The domestic section of the railway passes the inland cities of Xi’an, Lanzhou and Urumqi, and enters Kazakhstan in Central Asia from the Alataw Pass (Alashan Kou) in the Börtala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The international section of the railway travels through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland before reaching Germany.

Currently, the train leaves Chongqing for Duisburg once a month, but train services may be increased to once per day in the future as the city’s exports to Europe increase, according to Chongqing’s Mayor Huang Qifan. The article continues here...