In 1949, there were only 21,800 km of railway lines
in China, with only 11,000 km opened to traffic. Between
1979 and 1999, newly constructed lines opened to traffic
reached 17,919 km, of which electrified lines totaled 11,783
km. In 1999, the length of railway lines opened to traffic
reached 57,900, a 19.1 percent increase over 1978.
There are north-south and west-east trunk
lines in China. The north-south line, with Beijing as its
hub, consists of the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway,
Beijing-Shanghai Railway, Beijing-Kowloon Railway and
Beijing-Harbin Railway. The west-east line, with Zhengzhou
as its hub, consists of the Lianyungang-Lanzhou Railway and
Lanzhou-Urumqi Railway. The latter has been extended
westward to link up with the railways in Kazakhstan. Thus
Asia and Europe are linked by railways from Lianyungang in
China to Rotterdam in Holland. New railway lines have been
built in mountainous areas in southwestern China, mainly the
Chengdu-Chongqing Railway, Baoji-Chengdu Railway,
Chengdu-Kunming Railway and Nanning-Kunming Railway.
Besides, the Turpan-Kashi Railway has been newly built in
the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
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