China to build high-speed rail from London to Beijing

• Source: Global Times
• [18:50 March 11 2010]
• Comments

China is planning to build an international railway network that connects Beijing and London, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Wednesday.

The journey from London to Beijing by rail could just take two days.

The high-speed rail networks may cover three routes, although the specific ones have yet to be decided. According to the Daily Mail, the first would potentially connect Kunming in southern China with Singapore via Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia. The second could start in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China and go through Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and possibly end in India. The third leg would start in Northeast China and go north through Russia and then into Western Europe.

"We are aiming for the trains to run at 344 kilometers per hour," the Daily Mail quoted rail expert Wang Mengshu from China's Academy of Engineering as saying.

Last year China unveiled the world's fastest train, the Harmony Express, which can reach speeds as high as 350 kilometers per hour.