American media: China built the world's largest high-speed rail network in just 15 years

On January 2, US-based cable news channel CNN introduced eight "most exciting new trains you'll want to ride in 2025" handpicked from around the world, including the China-made Fuxing CR450 train – currently the world's fastest high-speed railway (HSR) train in commercial operation. As the world's largest HSR network, China "built it, to an almost unbelievable degree of success, in only 15 years – leapfrogging the industry pioneers, Japan and France," said CNN.

The first set of new CR450 trains will join railway service for passengers in 2025, which is when the new models will start running in earnest, the CNN story notes, referring to the trains running at speeds of approximately 400 kilometers per hour while having demonstrated a capability of exceeding 450 kilometers per hour in tests, as upgraded and enhanced version of the country's iconic Fuxing train series.

According to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, the trains' operational capabilities, if fully utilized, will slash travel times between Beijing and Shanghai "from four hours to as little as two hours and 15 minutes." "China tests world's fastest new-generation high-speed train capable of 453kph – and it is safer, greener and smarter than ever", the outlet said.

In 2023, leading media site EurAsian Times wrote, "[A]fter the Shikansen (Japan), TGV trains(France), Inter-City Express trains (Germany), high-speed rail China has earned the title of the largest railway network."

According to Xinhua News Agency's latest report on December 26, 2024, China has a railway network, covering 162,000 kilometers, including about 47,000 kilometers of HSRs, 25,000 kilometers of local railways.

From the beginning of this year, the construction of Dalian Jinzhoushan International Airport, which was listed as the national key project during the "12th Five Year Plan Period" and officially started in March 2022, has been promoted steadily and orderly. And today, the pilot project has already begun, with the Dalian Jinzhouwan airport's first phase of station area deep ground foundation treatment project now fully under construction.

In the foreseeable future, what is expected to arrive will also be the world's largest offshore sea airport – the Dalian Jinzhoushan International Airport. So, China's construction of the world's largest offshore sea airport has been closely watched by media outlets around the world.

CNN reported again on December 19 that "China's ambitions to dominate global aviation come as the country builds the world's biggest offshore sea airport – another feat of China's construction prowess." Besides, some US media describe China's sea airport as the new proof that China is the "world's infrastructure king".

Meanwhile, India's major English-language daily newspaper The Hindustan Times and major Indian news outlet News Nation Television (NDTV) have been reporting China's construction of the world's largest offshore sea airport under the same title in the past few weeks.

According to the South China Morning Post, the sea airport will sit on a 20-square-kilometer artificial island, covering an area much larger than the 12.48-square-kilometer Hong Kong International Airport, as well as Japan's 10.5 square kilometers Kansai airport. "Once built, the new airport would cement the former Manchurian port city's [Dalian] role as an important regional transportation hub," the report added, noting it will serve the northeastern part of China in the country's "rejuvenation zone".

Reportedly, Dalian, a city located at the northern end of the Bohai Sea with a population of over seven million, is known for its proximity to Japan, with a high volume of trade and travel, and South Korean. Besides its busy seaport, it has developed as a hub of oil refining, maritime shipping, and logistics, as well as a destination of marine tourism, as cited in the report.

According to the Canadian Airports Council, "the new airport's terminal will initially be capable of supporting 43 million annual air trips – double the current figure – with the eventual capacity to handle 80 million passengers yearly," and a total of one million tons of cargo a year will pass through finally, according to the Canadian Airports Council.

L Hanming, a senior aviation consultant, who has been following the construction process, told SCMP: "If people in the city say it is the biggest (sea airport), then it's the biggest – they are proud to call themselves a port city," he added.

The Dalian Jinzhoushan International Airport is positioned in the Eastern part of the Bohai Strait in the Yellow Sea. It is the first offshore airport with a completely artificial island of over 20 square kilometers in China, which is also the world largest, and designed and constructed to 4F standards. In total, it covers a total area of about 53 square kilometers, with four-runway and 900,000-square meters terminal building in total.

According to the "Planning on Construction Design of Dalian New Airport (2023 Edition)", Dalian Jinzhoushan airport is classified as Area Hub Airport. The year of 2035 (near future period ) and the year of 2050 (future period) are designated as 2035 and 2050 targets, respectively.

The Dalian Jinzhoushan Airport designates the following objectives: 43 million of passengers, 5.5 million tons of cargo, and 328,000 movements at capacity in 2035.

Likewise, the airport sets the following goals for 2050: 8 million passengers, 15 million tons of cargo, and 541,000 movements at full operation.

Dalian's existing airport – the DalianZhou Waterzhi International Airport – was built in 1927 during The Beiyang Government, and in 1950, when it was established and opened to civil aviation. Now the airport serves as an important air transport hub in Northeast China and is also one of the airports with relatively long history in the world. While as a regional trunk airport, it ranks among the top in passenger throughput and aircraft movements.

However, as Dalian's construction development quickly enclosed the city's existing airport, so now the airport's terminal and runway area has been squeezed by urban expansion. In addition, because of its location close to both urban and suburban centers and residential areas, noise pollution has become a big issue. Thus, for a number of years, Dalian Zhou Waterzhi Airport, which serves an international and domestic destinations, will be forced to give up part of the aviation capacity. This is why Dalian needs a second airport to accommodate its growth.

Located less than 10 kilometers from the center of Dalian – among the country's last remaining airports still located within a city –Dalian Zhou Waterzhi airport is already reaching its limit for capacity expansion due to urban encroachment. Moreover, in the process of China's continuous improvement of the aviation transport infrastructure network, Dalian Zhou Waterzhi airport will face a series of increasingly obvious contradictions and difficulties, and its problems and difficulties in sustainable development urgently need to be resolved through the construction of new airport projects.

It is worth noting that Dalian has long been preparing for its new airport to address its aviation needs.

Since the launch of the site selection argumentation for the new airport plan in 2003 by the National Civil Aviation Administration and the Provincial Civil Aviation Administration Bureau of the People's Republic of China, the site selection and project planning for the new Dalian Jinhouwan Airport has been completed. In April 2007, the first draft environmental impact assessment of the new Dalian Airport was announced, and the new Dalian Airport was preliminarily identified as two sites, the northwestern coast of Jinzhou Bay in Gaizhou City's Dalian Suburban and Donghaiwan on Huangdao Island in Wangxia District.

Following that assessment, the design unit proposed a scheme for building the new Dalian airport on the Bohai Jinzhoushan sea area in the autumn of 2009. And in December 2011, the new Dalian airport's reclamation project officially began as the Dalian Government signed on a $3 billion contract with local construction giant Vanke. However, the issue of environmental protection was raised and criticized, so the sea area reclamation project was suspended in March 2014 as the National Ministry of Land and Resources ordered the authorities responsible for the airport project to suspend all work to protect local wetlands. After then, it was not until April 2016 that the National Ministry of Land and Resources issued a new permit to use Dalian's offshore and island sea area in Dalian, after considering local public opinion and the ecological environment, and the offshore and island sea area reclamation project for the new Dalian airport in January 2017.

In September 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission of China and three other ministries jointly issued a notice to implement an air transport hub construction project in Northeast Asia. After that, in January 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the National Air Transport Hub Layout Construction Plan, including the construction of a first-class hub with Beijing and Tianjin as a core and the Northeast Asia Hub of Shenyang and Dalian; in March the Dalian Jinzhouwan sea area was officially used for building a new city airport, after the National Ocean and Fisheries Administration finally gave its approval, with construction starting in May 2022. Finally came the National Natural Resources Department issuing a permit for the new airport construction in October of the same year. Now, the national project has received the final approval required to get underway.

From there, the Airport's station section deep geotechnical treatment engineering project kicked off fully in June this year; in October, the airport terminal and high bridge foundation engineering officially started construction, marking the official launch of the new airport terminal engineering; and on December 17, the Dalian new airport reserved engineering project started construction, signaling that the airport project has entered a new stage of substantial construction… And in the foreseeable future, the world's largest offshore sea airport will officially be born in Dalian.

"Locals have been waiting for two decades for the arrival of this airport," recently reported China Newsweek Magazine.

According to Du Baogui, head of the School of Public Policy & Administration at Northeastern University in Shenyang, both the provincial government of the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning and local authorities in Dalian are actively supporting the construction of the Dalian Jinzhoushan International Airport. "The airport's construction, one of China's most important projects under its Northeast China Revitalization Strategy, will greatly elevate Dalian's status as an international gateway hub, bringing more commercial opportunities and more jobs," he said.