Leaps and bounds

In 2010, the first high-speed railway in the northeastern part of China, the Changchun-Jilin-Hunchun Intercity Railway, finished construction, and was able to travel at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour with a transferring capacity of 586 passengers. It marked the beginning of the era of high-speed railways in Jilin province.

Three years later, in 2013, the world's fastest railway in China's coldest region, the Harbin-Dalian high-speed train pulled into Changchun West Railway Station. The technology applied on the railway ended up leading the global vehicle manufacturing industry.

A high-speed train passes through Jilin city in Jilin province in 2018. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Two high-speed railway lines that run along the border with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea were built in 2015. Fast trains could reach Dandong on the Apnok River near the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Hunchun on the Tuman River.

Later in the same year, the high-speed rail linking Shenyang to Dandong in Liaoning province was completed and the line linking Changchun and Hunchun in Jilin province opened. Being dubbed the most beautiful line in northeastern China, the 360-kilometer-long Changchun-Hunchun line passes through several major cities in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture.

By the end of 2016, railway operation length reached 5,000 kilometers with a further 1,400 kilometers of railway under construction.

In 2017, an inter-city railway linking Changchun and Baicheng of northeastern China's Jilin province and Ulanhot in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region opened to the public. The 412-km-long railway begins in Changchun, passes Songyuan, Da'an, and Baicheng in Jilin and terminates in Ulanhot. It was the first cross-regional railway in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. The average speed of the trains reached around 160 kilometers per hour.

The government of Jilin also finished construction of three high-speed railway programs -- Dunhua-Baihe, Shenyang-Baihe and Siping-Tonghua, with a total length of 600 kilometers.