The new line was inaugurated on 26 December with the first departure from Yan’an to the provincial capital Xi’an. Designed for a maximum speed of 350 km/h, the route reduces travel time between the two cities to approximately one hour, Xinhua reports. Yan’an, located in northern Shaanxi, is connected for the first time to the national high-speed rail network.
China’s high-speed rail system began operations in 2008 with the Beijing–Tianjin intercity railway. Since then, the network has expanded continuously and now accounts for more operational mileage than the rest of the world combined. Between 2021 to 2025, 12,000 km of high-speed railway lines were constructed and commissioned, according to data from China State Railway Group.
Almost all cities with more than half a million citizens have high-speed rail connection
High-speed services are currently available in 97% of Chinese cities with populations above 500,000. The network layout allows travel times of one to two hours within city clusters spanning roughly 500 km, around four hours between major cities separated by 1,000 km, and same-day journeys over distances exceeding 2,000 km. Daily passenger capacity across the system reaches up to 16 million.
More new high speed lines opened
Alongside the Xi’an–Yan’an route, several other high-speed lines entered operation on the same day. These include the 314 km Wuhan–Yichang section of the corridor linking Shanghai with Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the 131 km Hangzhou–Quzhou line in Zhejiang Province. Local authorities along these corridors expect changes in intercity connectivity and industrial cooperation patterns following the openings.
Domestic manufacturing and testing at speeds over 450 km/h
China’s high-speed rail programme has also involved extensive domestic engineering and standard setting. A Fuxing train operating at 350 km/h incorporates more than 40,000 components, with 84% of the applied technical standards developed domestically. Test runs are ongoing for the CR450 train on high-speed lines, where a single-train test speed of 453 km/h has been recorded.
The continued expansion of the high-speed rail network is reshaping long-distance and regional travel patterns across China, while integrating newly connected areas into the national rail system.
