China’s High-Speed Rail Network Tops 50,000 Kilometers with New Shaanxi Line Opening

Credits: Wang Jing of ChinaDaily

China’s high-speed rail network exceeded 50,000 kilometers on December 26, 2025, after a new line entered service in the northwest province of Shaanxi.

The 299-kilometer route links Xi’an, the provincial capital, with Yan’an, a city that served as the Communist Party of China’s base from 1937 to 1947.

The line, designed for speeds up to 350 kilometers per hour, cuts travel time between the cities from more than two hours to about one hour.

It includes 10 stations, such as Fuping South, Tongchuan and Luochuan, and crosses the Loess Plateau.

The expansion meets a target set in China’s 14th Five-Year Development Plan for 2021-2025.

China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. built 12,000 kilometers of high-speed rail during that period.

The network now reaches 97 percent of cities with populations over 500,000.

China’s rail network grew by around 32 percent since 2020.

“China’s high-speed rail has achieved historic accomplishments and realized higher-quality development. It has become a shining national flagship and a vivid embodiment of Chinese modernization,” said Yu Jian, an expert from the China Railway Economic and Planning Research Institute.

The system handles up to 16 million passengers daily.

It allows one- to two-hour trips within 500-kilometer city clusters, four-hour journeys over 1,000 kilometers and same-day travel across 2,000 kilometers.

“The growth of transport infrastructure like high-speed rail not only connects places but also creates new value across regions,” said Wei Jigang, an official with the Development Research Center of the State Council.

China began high-speed rail operations in 2008 with the Beijing-Tianjin line.

The network reached 38,000 kilometers by 2020.

The total operating length now surpasses the combined high-speed rail of all other countries.

Other new lines opened on December 26, 2025, including the 314-kilometer Wuhan-Yichang section and the 131-kilometer Hangzhou-Quzhou route.