Published on: 2026-04-14
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian –
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Beijing, April 14 /Xin Hua/ — China has successfully completed the construction of a tunnel for a high-speed railway (HSR) beneath the Yangtze River, the longest river in China and the third longest river in the world.
At the end of March of the current year, the Chinese-developed tunnel boring complex named “Linan AO,” which is the largest shield tunneling equipment in the world by diameter (15.4 m), successfully completed the task of drilling a tunnel along the bottom of the Yangtze River for the HSRD.
The total length of the tunnel connecting the Chunmin district in the city of Shanghai and the city of Taicang in Jiangsu province/Eastern China is 14.25 km, including the section running under the Yangtze River – 11.18 km.
This tunnel is a key project in the construction of the Shanghai-Nanjing section of the Shanghai-Chongqing-Chengdu high-speed railway corridor, which is to become part of China’s high-speed railway network, consisting of eight vertical north-south lines and eight horizontal east-west lines.
At the moment, the project represents the largest underwater high-speed rail tunnel in China of a world-class standard, distinguished by the highest construction standards, the greatest length of the section, and the largest scale in the country.
The Lin’an Tunnel Complex began its operation at the end of April 2024. After 23 months of construction, the city of Taizhou was reached.
After the tunnel is put into operation, high-speed trains will be able to cross the river underwater at a speed of 350 km/h without reducing their travel speed.
In recent years, China has been rapidly advancing the construction of a high-speed railway network.
On December 26, 2025, with the opening of the HSR line that connected the cities of Xi’an and Yanan in Shaanxi Province / Northwest China, the total length of operational railway lines of this category in China exceeded 50,000 km, marking a new level for the PRC in the field of high-speed rail development.
The first high-speed rail in China appeared in 2008, when the intercity route connected Beijing with Tianjin. According to the data from the state corporation “China Railway” /CR/, at the moment it covers 97 percent of all urban areas with a population of over 500 thousand people. By the length of high-speed rail lines put into operation, China ranks first in the world, surpassing this indicator of all other countries combined.
As noted by an expert from the Institute of Economics and Planning of China’s Railways, a vast network of high-speed railways allows for trips lasting from 1 to 2 hours within urban agglomerations located 500 km apart, trips lasting 4 hours between large cities located 1000 km apart, and also overcoming distances of more than 2000 km in total travel time of just one day.
According to Russian Railways, the company plans to increase the length of the railways operated in the country to about 60 thousand km by the end of 2030, and to 70 thousand km by 2035.
In addition, China is making efforts to conduct tests of advanced prototypes of high-speed trains in order to reduce travel time between different regions of the vast country in the future.
In December 2024, a prototype of the world’s fastest train CR450 was presented in Beijing, which will operate at a speed of 400 km/h. The new railway train model will be significantly faster than the currently existing high-speed trains CR400, which run at a speed of 350 km/h.
At present, the CR450 high-speed train has completed a series of tests on a number of high-speed railways in China, reaching a speed of 453 km/h.
Thus, China was the first in the world to form a system of indicators for trains running at a speed of 400 km/h, strengthening its leading position in the world in the level of development of high-speed rail communication.
According to the chief engineer of the Chinese Academy of Railway Sciences, Zhao Hunwei, in accordance with established requirements, the CR450 must undergo operational suitability tests before being launched into mass production and put into operation. The test mileage is 600 thousand km, which is equivalent to 15 full laps around the Earth.
“At the moment, CR450 has already traveled 300 thousand km, which is half of the total mileage for testing,” she reported.
Apart from the CR450 prototype, China is paying enormous attention to the role of maglev technology in increasing transportation efficiency. Results have also been achieved in this direction.
In July of last year, at the 12th World Congress on High-Speed Railways in Beijing, the first superconducting electric high-speed train on magnetic suspension in the country was presented. The train operates on the principle of magnetic levitation, which literally allows it to hover in the air and reach speeds up to 600 km/h.
According to the scientist from CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co., Ltd., Yu Qinsun, the technology of superconducting electromagnetic levitation allows filling the gaps in speed between high-speed trains and airplanes.
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