China moves from follower to leader in transport technology: white paper

BEIJING — China is making steady progress from a follower to a leader in transport technology, a white paper released on Dec 22 says.

China possesses self-developed core technologies, and has made major breakthroughs in transport infrastructure and equipment, according to the white paper titled "Sustainable Development of Transport in China".

The following are some world-leading mega-projects and technologies listed by the white paper:

— China leads the world in technology for railways at high altitudes and in extremely low temperatures, and for high-speed and heavy-haul railways.

— It has solved the most challenging technical problems confronting highway construction in difficult geological conditions such as plateau permafrost, expansive soil, and desert. It also leads in core technologies for building deep-water offshore ports, improving massive estuary and long waterways, and building large airports.

— By the end of 2019, the total length of high-speed railway lines across the country exceeded 35,000 km, making up more than two thirds of the world's total.

— The Beijing-Guangzhou High-speed Railway, the longest high-speed rail line in the world, has been completed. The Harbin-Dalian High-speed Railway, the world's first high-speed rail line operating at low temperatures in winter is open to traffic. The Datong-Qinhuangdao Heavy-haul Railway ranks top in the world in terms of annual transport volume.

— China leads the world in the total length and number of highway bridges and tunnels in service and under construction. It has seven of the ten longest cable-stayed bridges, six of the ten longest suspension bridges, six of the ten longest cross-sea bridges, and eight of the ten highest bridges in the world.

— The Fuxing electric multiple units trains have been running at 350 km/h — the highest operating speed in the world — on the Beijing-Shanghai Highspeed Rail, the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Rail and the Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-speed Rail.

— China became the first in the world to realize autopilot on trains running at a speed of 350 km/h.

— The manufacturing technologies for special marine engineering machinery vessels and complete sets of large automated and specialized container handling equipment rank top in the world.