China completed construction of a high-speed rail line from Beijing to the northeastern city of Harbin on January 22, passing through Changchun and Shenyang, a distance of 1,198 kilometers, cutting the travel from time from seven hours to less than five. The line will use the new Fuxing Alpine EMU. The temperatures in these northern climes are really arctic during the winter months. The flaming red train has been dubbed the “Fire Phoenix” and is one of the most technically advanced trains of its type, able to operate at -40 degrees. The new EMU adopts equipment and technology such as chrome-molybdenum alloy steel bolts and nuts, low-temperature control switches, automatic anti-freezing function brakes, and water supply and drainage pipes covered with cold-proof materials. In addition, the train’s water tanks, dirt tanks, and water pipes are all dressed in thick “padded clothes,” with built-in heating wires. A “small electric stove” warms the water tank.
The high-speed line will add significant momentum to the efforts made by the central government to revive the country’s northeast, former Manchuria. During the 50s and 60s this was the manufacturing center of China, the ground having been laid by the Russians, who built the first railroad through the area, the Chinese Eastern Railroad, as an extension of Sergei Witte’s Transsiberian Railroad.
The city of Harbin was developed by the railroad and the city architecture is as much Russian as it is Chinese. And the manufacturing capacity of the regions was also maintained and increased by the Japanese during their occupation of the region during World War II. The northeast has also been and still is a major grain-producing region with its “black Earth” soil. Its revival can also serve as a bellwether for the development of eastern Siberia which it borders.
