The railway station that serves Shanghai’s oldest airport, Shanghai Hongqiao, looks so like an airport terminal that it took me quite by surprise on my recent visit to China, my first in over 25 years. It is the archetypal Chinese high-speed station: vast, modern, comfortable, equipped with a range of shops and inexpensive restaurants, and accessible only to ticket-holders. Its similarity to an airport concourse extends to the layout of the waiting area, the departure gates that lead to the platforms, the departures board complete with a Swiss clock above it… I was struck, too, by how well designed these spaces were and the quality of the signage.

That Chinese railway technology has taken a great leap forward is undeniable: in 1997 covering the 85km from Shanghai to Suzhou meant a two-hour journey. Back then, the average speed of Chinese trains was 48 kmph. But in 2006 the 11th Five-Year Plan launched the high-speed network, organised systematically around a ‘four verticals and four horizontals’ grid, recalling the plans of Roman cities and China’s imperial capitals.

The project, which initially focused on ‘economically useful China’ (Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Chongqing), was later expanded. Opened in 2008, the high-speed network had already reached 18,000km of track by 2012, and by early 2025 it stood at 46,000km – three quarters of the world’s high-speed rail (HSR) network. It is planned to extend to 70,000km in the next decade. The authorities now say they want to connect each of China’s 333 prefecture-level cities to a high-speed line. The average operating speed of Chinese trains rose to 70 kmph in 2011, and is now close to 100 kmph. And the two hours it took to travel between Shanghai and Suzhou in 1997 has been slashed to around 20 minutes.

But my first destination on this trip was Wuhan. Once on board my train, the impression of being on a plane persisted: folding tray tables, a food trolley plying the aisle, a paper bag and (…)

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(4) Alstom acquired Italian manufacturer Fiat’s railway business in 2000.

(5) China ultimately produced only 140 of these trains, compared with 630 for Kawasaki’s Series 2 and 344 for Bombardier’s Series 1.

(6) Above this level there is only ‘exceptional class’, reserved for a few dozen major stations.

(7) Quoted by Jia Yuxuan, Li Xintian, Zhao Huiyi and Wang Zichen in ‘China massively overbuilt high-speed rail, says leading economic geographer’, 20 July 2025, www.pekinology.com/.

(8) ‘Opinion of the General Office of the State Council transmitting the opinions of the National Development and Reform Commission and other units on improving railway planning and construction work’ (in Chinese), Beijing, 30 March 2021.

(9) English abbreviation for ‘cask for storage and transport of radioactive material’. These wagons can carry between 115 and 125 tonnes of fuel. One tonne of uranium ore can produce as much electricity as 15,900 tonnes of coal.