China has the world’s largest high-speed rail network, with the total operating length reaching 19,000 km by the end of 2015, about 60 percent of the world’s total.

The expanding high-speed rail network is offering unprecedented convenience and comfort to travelers, and boosting local development as well.

“Building more high-speed railways” has been a hot topic at the annual sessions of China’s provincial legislatures and political advisory bodies intensively held in January.

Chinese companies have developed world-leading capabilities in building high-speed railways in extreme natural conditions.

High-speed railway routes across China have been designed to suit its varying climate and geographical conditions. The Harbin-Dalian high-speed railway travels through areas where the temperature drops to as low as 40 degree Celsius below zero in winter, the Lanzhou-Xinjiang railway passes through the savage Gobi Desert and the Hainan Island railway can withstand a battering from typhoons.

The China Railway Corp plans to spend another 800 billion yuan ($120 billion) in 2016, especially in less-developed central and western regions.

File photo taken on Nov 10, 2010 shows the Shanghai section of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, which is under construction, in Shanghai,. [Photo/Xinhua]

File photo taken on June 24, 2011 shows Beijing South Railway Station, northern terminal of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway in Beijing, capital of China.[Photo/Xinhua]

File photo taken on Dec 28, 2011 shows a CRH380A bullet train is subject to maintenance in Shanghai.[Photo/Xinhua]

File photo taken on Nov 25, 2012 shows a bullet train running through the Huanghe Bridge on Zhengzhou section of the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway in central China’s Henan province.[Photo/Xinhua]

File photo taken on Dec 1, 2012 shows a bullet train departing from Dalian on the Harbin-Dalian high-speed railway, Northeast China’s Liaoning province.[Photo/Xinhua]

File photo taken on Dec 25, 2012 shows bullet trains which will put into operation on the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway, at a highway-speed train base in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei province. [Photo/Xinhua]

File photo taken on Feb 9, 2013 shows a bullet train arriving for maintenance in Changchun, capital of Northeast China’s Jilin province.[Photo/Xinhua]

File photo taken on Dec 13, 2014 shows a bullet train running on the Zhangye section of the Lanzhou-Xinjiang high-speed railway, northwest China’s Gansu province. [Photo/Xinhua]

File photo taken on June 1, 2015 shows a CRH380A bullet train on a test run on the Hefei-Fuzhou high-speed railway, in Fuzhou, capital of Southeast China’s Fujian province. [Photo/Xinhua]

File photo taken on Feb 14, 2015 shows a CRH2G bullet train running for a test on the Harbin-Dalian high-speed railway, Northeast China.[Photo/Xinhua]

File photo taken on May 22, 2015 shows a bullet train running along a 750-KV power transmission project on the Lanzhou-Xinjiang high-speed railway, Northwest China. [Photo/Xinhua]

File photo taken on June 30, 2015 shows a bullet train running southbound to Shanghai’s Hongqiao Railway Station.[Photo/Xinhua]

File photo taken on Aug 4, 2015 shows a bullet train running along fields of rape flowers on the Lanzhou-Xinjiang high-speed railway, Northwest China’s Qinghai province. [Photo/Xinhua]

File photo taken on Nov 24, 2015 shows a bullet train running on the Lanzhou-Xinjiang high-speed railway, in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. [Photo/Xinhua]

File photo taken on Dec 29, 2015 shows a bullet train running on the western part of a loop line of Hainan high-speed railway in south China’s island of Hainan province. [Photo/Xinhua]

File photo taken on Dec 29, 2015 shows a bullet train running on Haikou-Lingao section of the western loop line of Hainan high-speed railway in south China’s island of Hainan province. [Photo/Xinhua]