China's railways mileage tops 100,000 km

BEIJING - China's railways network topped 100,000 km in total mileage on Saturday, as several new rail links started operations ahead of the busiest travel season of the year next month.

The newly opened links include the Xiamen-Shenzhen railway, Xi'an-Baoji high rail, Chongqing-Lichuan railway, and others in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and have a combined mileage of 2,000 km.

Of the 100,000 km of track, more than 10,000 km are highspeed, said Hu Yadong, vice general manager of the China Railway Corporation.

China's first railway was built in 1876 in Shanghai and first independent railway was constructed in 1881 in Tangshan in north China's Hebei Province. When new China was founded in 1949, there were less than 22,000 km of lines and but only half of that was serviceable.

According to the national railway network plan, highspeed rails will reach 19,000 km by 2015. By 2020, the total railway mileage will top 120,000 km.