Start a wonderful journey in China by trains

China has the largest passenger railway network in the world, with an operating mileage of nearly 170,000 kilometers, including nearly 45,000 kilometers of high-speed railway and 10,000 kilometers of urban rail transit. In this huge system, there are not only high-speed railway system with a speed of 350 km/h (~ 218 mph) between major cities, but also extend in all directions between mountains and forests by the train not really care about speed, and large-scale urban underground rail transit system in downtown and suburban areas of dozens of cities. The systems intersect each other in a complex form, and various types of trains run on them. It seems convenient to travel by rail transit in China and it is possible to reach major cities and major attractions popular with foreigners simply by public transport, but there are still many matters needing attention. You can learn a lot about it on our website, which is convenient for you to travel around China by rail transit.

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Learn about China Railway Systems

At present, China mainland domestic railways are mainly divided into national railways operated by the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. and local railways operated by different local railway companies, which are basically independent of each other. There are still some lines that are the integration of the them, which the trains run on national railway lines but are operated by local companies. "National Railway" is a railway network operated by the state (China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.), covering cross-regional railway lines nationwide. China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (commonly known as China National Railway, English abbreviation as CR) is divided into 18  branches by region. All trains operated by the national railway implement the real-name system, that is, all passengers need to use valid identity documents before they can buy tickets and enter the station.

Contrary to Japan rail transit system, CR National Railway widely operates cross-line trains with a variety of train models. The train number of CR is very complicated, nearly every railway line in CR usually has many kinds and models of trains running on it, it is impossible to distinguish the models of trains from the train number, and different models of trains may be used for the same number of trains on different dates. Almost all lines of CR have cross-line trains, and there is not a close relationship between the stations and the heading direction and the train number, so it is necessary to care about the train number instead of the line name. When arriving at the station, you will hardly see the station display the line name at any position, but all the train numbers.

The local railways mainly refers to the urban rail transit which built and operated by the loacl railway companies or local governments of various cities. But subway and suburban railway operated by local railway companies always have a single mode of operation, and more attention should be paid to the route name rather than the number of trains or train types. The local railways rarely to operate cross-line trains and even the lines are independent to each other, and lines also can be operated by several local rail companies in one city, the models of the train are basically the same especially in some small-scale local railway systems.

In the early days, the boundary between "national railway" and "local railway" was very clear. The national railways was powered by alternating current while the local railways(subway) used direct current. The trains on national railways run on the left while the subway run on the right. However, with a variety of reasons, they have produced many kinds of fusioned "cross-border" lines or trains from technical point of view. There are also companies in cities, provinces or regions participating in the operation of CR network. This kind of route still implements the real-name system. Although their routes are usually operated independently and can be taken by using local public transport cards or apps, you can still purchase tickets through 12306 web page and app operated by CR. This kind of railways does not need to take the real-name system. In addition, it should be noted that there may be other CR trains and cross-line trains on these lines, and the entrances of the station might be different with the national railway mentioned above.