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Video | ‘Infrastructure monster’: how China built the world’s longest high-speed railway

A look at how China took only two decades to develop the world’s longest high-speed railway

08:26

'Infrastructure monster': how China built the world’s longest high-speed railway

'Infrastructure monster': how China built the world’s longest high-speed railway

China has the world’s largest high-speed railway. Known as an “infrastructure monster”, it only took about 20 years for the country to develop the 45,000km (28,000-mile) network. The country also exports railway technology as a key part of the Belt and Road Initiative, the central government’s plan to link economies into a China-centred trading network.

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The scope of the infrastructure project was hailed as an example of the sort of development that was only possible thanks to China’s central planning and top-down leadership.

However, the rapid development of the high-speed transport system has also raised some environmental concerns.

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