The line that connects China and Mongolia, the Erlianhaote-Zamyn Uud Railway, was launched in 1955 and started transporting international passengers and cargo in 1956.

The railway that links China with Kazakhstan, operating since 1991, runs from China's Ala Mountain Pass to Dostyk, Kazakhstan.

The two railways that connect China and Viet Nam start from China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Yunnan Province and run to the border cities of Viet Nam.

Wu Weiping said the 10 international railways have two functions. First, they serve for bilateral passenger and cargo transportation between the neighboring countries and China. Second, they act as transit stations where Chinese passengers can continue on to Europe by rail.

The Chinese Government has made plans to build new railways in western parts of the country to speed construction of international passageways, Wu said. One such plan is the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway, which will serve as the southern branch of the Euro-Asia Continental Bridge.

China is also planning a China-Myanmar railway that will run between the two countries and then connect to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. This rail will play an important role in strengthening China's ties with Southeast Asia.

China has also created a detailed plan to build an international rail pass in the southwestern part of the country that will connect it to India. The railway will go from China's Yunnan Province through Myanmar to India and Bangladesh. This railway will connect inland Chinese cities to Bangladeshi ports. The link will promote China's economic ties with South Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

Future blueprint

China's railways account for only 6 percent of the world's total, though they shoulder one-fourth of the world's transportation load.

In order to break the bottleneck, China readjusted its Middle/Long-Term Railway Network Plan that was adopted in 2004, and came up with a revised version in October 2008. The new plan said the total length of the Chinese railway should be extended by 2020 to 120,000 km, 20,000 km longer than the 2004 plan stated as a goal. By 2020, the proportion of railways using electric power will rise to 60 percent, while passenger lines will reach 16,000 km.

"Chinese railway construction made great achievements in the past 60 years. But taking into consideration the country's vast territory and population, our railway system needs more development if we are going to catch up with those in developed countries," said Lu Changqing.

Lu said imbalanced resource and industrial layout in China make it a requirement that coal and grain produced in the north must be transported to the south, while coal and cotton in the west must be transported to the east.

Meanwhile, with improving living standards and urbanization, inter-city transportation loads will soon surge. Rail travel is the first choice in coping with the large transportation volume as it is efficient and has high capacity, low energy consumption, a good safety record, and produces relatively little pollution.

According to Chinese Government plans, high-speed railways are the focus of future railway development. Lu said there are still currently about 13,000 km of railway lines that have not had speed limits raised. They will be upgraded to allow speeds of over 200 km per hour.

The construction of resource transport lines will be intensified, especially for moving coal. The Chinese Government will modify and expand lines in 10 major coal production provinces like Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi and Guizhou to form a comprehensive and high-capacity coal transport system.

In order to finance these targets, the Chinese Government passed a budget in November 2008 to invest 2 trillion yuan ($292 billion) on railway construction over the next three years.

Milestones in 60 years of railway construction

In 1952, construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing railway was completed. The line was the first to be established after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

The first railway network was constructed and put into operation under the first Five-Year Plan (1953-57) in the western part of the country. The network included Chengdu-Chongqing, Tianshui-Lanzhou, Laibin-Pingxiang and Baoji-Chengdu rail lines.

In 1957, the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, the first railway bridge to span the river, was completed.

In the second Five-Year Plan (1958-62), many railways were constructed in China's north. New links included Baotou-Lanzhou, Beijing-Chengde and Lanzhou-Xining lines.

In 1958, the Baoji-Chengdu Railway, China's first to be electrified, was completed.

In July 1970, the Chengdu-Kunming Line was finished, which was an important link in the Chinese railway network that greatly improved transportation within minority areas of China's southwest.

In 1983, the Beijing-Qinhuangdao Railway started operation, making it the first double-line electrified railway in China.

In 1992, the Datong-Qinhuangdao Railway Line began operation. Its technology matched international standards in that it was China's first to support heavily loaded trains, the first to use a computerized central traffic-control system and the first to use a fiber-optic communication system. In August 2006, the railway's operator, Daqin Railway Co. Ltd., was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

In 1994, the Guangzhou-Shenzhen railway was completed, marking the first high-speed railway in the country. In May 1996, railroad operator Guangshen Railway Co. Ltd. held an initial public stock offering in both Hong Kong and New York. It was China's first railway management company to be listed abroad.

On July 1, 2006, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the world's highest altitude and longest plateau railroad, was inaugurated a year ahead of schedule.

On April 18, 2008, the construction of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway began. Prior to that, the country began construction on over 20 high-speed, inter-city lines that will be able to travel from 200 to 350 km per hour. More than 8,000 km of high-speed railway lines were under construction or already operating.

In July 2008, the Beijing-Tianjin Railway began to operate. It is China's fastest railway line, reaching speeds of 350 km per hour with full independent intellectual property right.