中国高铁 China Railway High-Speed

中国高铁（Zhōng guó gāo tiě，China Railway High-Speed (CRH) ）
      
“高铁”，被誉为是20世纪后期和21世纪最具革命性的交通工具。今天，“中国高铁”正是这种“最具革命性交通工具”的佼佼者。其实，中国高铁起步也就是从2004年初才开始。那时，中国刚刚颁布其铁路史上第一个《中长期铁路网规划》。之后到现在，也就仅仅六年多时间，中国铁路实现了跨越式发展，中国铁路在让世人惊叹中昂首跨入了“高铁时代”。

2010年9月28日，中国自主研发的“和谐号- CRH380A”新一代高速动车组实验列车，以时速416.6公里的超高速，在上海至杭州的高速铁路上创造了世界铁路运营史上的最高速度。“中国高铁”已经走到了世界高速铁路的最前沿，成为“中国速度”和“中国制造”最具标志性的代言者。按照中国规划的宏伟蓝图，到2020年，中国铁路营运总里程将再增加近一倍，突破12万公里，其中高速铁路将超过1.6万公里以上。届时，中国铁路将形成包括京-沪高铁、京-深-港高铁在内的“四纵四横”的高速客运骨架网。那时，北京到上海的旅行时间将由10小时大大缩短为不足4小时；北京至广州将由22小时锐减至6个半小时；北京至昆明将由最快38小时变为不超过8小时；甚至从北京到遥远的乌鲁木齐，也将由40小时缩短至仅仅11个小时。

正如美国《新闻周刊》所言：中国正在进行一场“铁路革命”，时速达350公里以上的高铁让多年来以幅员辽阔为特色的中国正在“大大缩小”，并改变了这个国家的经济版图。

“High speed rail travel" has been called the most revolutionary means of transport of the late 20th century and early 21st century. Today, China’s high-speed railway or CRH, is the best example of such “revolutionary means of transport". In fact, CRH only began to develop in early 2004, when China issued its "Mid and Long-term Railway Network Plan", the first such development in China’s history. It was in little more than six years that China’s railway realized its leap-forward, which made it possible for China to head into "an era of high-speed railway".

On September 28, 2010, for instance, China's homemade “Harmony - CRH380A”, a new generation of experimental high-speed train, realized the high speed of 416.6 km an hour along the track from Shanghai to Hangzhou. This is the world's highest speed in the history of railway. China’s high speed railway is now at the forefront of the world's high-speed railway, and has become a model of "China Speed" and "Made in China". According to China’s railway network development plan, by 2020, China’s total mileage of railway will have almost doubled, exceeding 120 thousand kilometers, of which high-speed railway will account for over 16 thousand km. By then, a grid network of China railway with four horizontal and four vertical tracks will be formed, including the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line, and the Beijing-Shenzhen-Hong Kong high-speed rail line. At that time, the travel time from Beijing to Shanghai will be shortened from 10 hours to less than 4 hours. The travel time from Beijing to Guangzhou will dro from 22 hours to only 6 and a half hours. From Beijing to Kunming, the travel time will also be changed from the current fastest travel time of 38 hours into no more than 8 hours. Even from the Beijing to the distant city of Urumqi, the travel time will also be reduced from 40 hours to just 11 hours.

As the American publication "Newsweek" put it: China is now engaged in a "railway revolution". These 350 kilometer per hour high-speed railway trains have made the country’s vast territory "substantially smaller”, and changed the country economically.