OVERVIEW OF TRANSPORTATION IN MAINLAND CHINA 1980-2010

UNDER SUPERVISION FROMPROFESSOR FRANCIS VANEK

BY JIKUN LIAN & YI ZHOU

April 22, 2015

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Thank you, Professor Francis Vanek, for allowing us the opportunity to take on this project and giving us an opportunity to learn more about the economic, transportation, and regional status of Mainland China. We greatly appreciate your support and guidance!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Goal of the Project……………………………………………………………………42. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………...4

2.1 Background…………………………………………………………………...42.2 History of Chinese Transportation……………………………………………4

3. Modes of Transportation……………………………………………………………...43.1 Railway Network……………………………………………………………….....53.2 Waterway Network………………………………………………………………..63.3 Highway Network………………………………………………………………....63.4 Airport Network…………………………………………………………………...73.5 Freight Network…………………………………………………………………...7

4. General Issues………………………………………………………………………....84.1 Congestion………………………………………………………………………...84.2 Environmental Pollution………………………………………………………......94.3 Traffic Safety…………………………………………………………………….114.4 Government Policies……………………………………………………………..114.5 Use of Outdated Technology…………………………………………………….12

5. National Transportation Growth History 1980-2010………………………………..125.1 Transportation Demand………………………………………………………….125.2 Energy Consumption…………………………………………………………….145.3 CO2 Emission Levels…………………………………………………………....15

6. Study of Chinese Cities……………………………………………………………...186.1 Regional Discussions…………………………………………………………….196.2 Large Cities………………………………………………………………………22

6.2.1 Beijing…………………………………………………………………....226.2.2 Shanghai……………………………………………………………….....25

6.3 Medium Cities…………………………………………………………………....286.3.1 Zhengzhou………………………………………………………………..286.3.2 Wuhan…………………………………………………………………....30

7. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………...318. References……………………………………………………………………………329. List of Visuals………………………………………………………………………..33

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1. GOAL OF THE PROJECT

The goal of this project is to explore at an introductory level the transportation state of Mainland China as well as explore how it has evolved over the three decades of high economic development from 1980s to 2010s. This project briefly looks at the state of waterway, highway, railway, and airway networks in several large and medium sized cities in China during that time period.

2. INTRODUCTION

2.1 Background

Every aspect of China is burgeoning, from basic statistics such as its population to more complicated economic indicators such as its GDP, these numbers are increasing at an astonishing rate. Currently, China is the largest in the world in terms of population (1,340,910,000 in 2010), and has the second largest nominal gross domestic product (4.01202 x 10^13 Yuan, or $5.93 trillion in 2010), which falls short only short to the United States. The only thing more impressive than these numbers is the rate at which they are growing. From 2000 to 2010 China’s population increased by 5.8% and its GDP grew by a staggering 304.4%. These growth statistics are supported by another factor: China is the second largest country by landmass, coming in at 9.6 million square kilometers.  These numbers give insight into the huge potential that China has as a nation.

The aforementioned statistics show the prosperous nature of China, and it is vital that there is a sufficient transportation network, in terms of extent and efficiency, to support China’s growth and huge population. In order to see what China’s transportation network will look like in the future, it is necessary to look back at its past to see how it has grown, and how its growth correlates with and influences other factors like population, GDP, and emissions.

2.2 History of Chinese Transportation (1980-2010)

In 1980, China’s population was only 987 million, 350 million less than it is now. In order to support China’s growth, the railway, highway, waterway, and airway networks had to grow to accommodate not only the increasing population, but also the enormous amounts of freight produced for China and the international community.

3. MODES OF TRANSPORTATION

Transportation has seen significant growth and expansion in recent years in China, in correlation with the rapid growth of the urban cities in general. Much of modern China’s transportation systems have been built after the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949. Although rural areas of China still largely depend on simpler means of transport (such as riding bicycles, motorcycles, by foot, or with the help of animals), a modern maglev train is slowly connecting more and more places across provinces in China.

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3.1 Railway Network

Here are overviews of the different types of transportation methods and how they have developed since 1978.

19781981

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2.000

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Length of Railways in Operation

Length of Railways in Operation

Len

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(in

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kilo

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ers)

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All graphs adapted from [http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/2014/indexeh.htm](Source: http://sheepish.org/itp/spatial/chinarails/)

3.2 Waterway Network

19781981

19831985

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Length of Navigable Inland Wa-terways

Length of Navigable Inland Waterways

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ers)

3.3 Highway Network

19781981

19831985

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20072009

20110.000

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Length of Highways

Length of Highways

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ers)

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3.4 Airport Network

19781981

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20110.000

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Length of Civil Aviation Routes

Length of Civil Aviation Routes

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3.5 Freight Network

19781985

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0

1000000

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Freight Traffic for Various Methods of Transportation

Total Railways HighwaysWaterways Aviation

Freight Traffic

Am

oun

t (i

n 1

0,0

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nes

Chart adapted from [http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/2014/indexeh.htm]4. GENERAL ISSUES

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In a country such as China that has developed rapidly over the past few decades, the need for better and efficient transportation is more important than ever before. The urban space is in need of vast transportation hubs that can handle the mass influx of passengers and commodities from other parts of China. However, keeping up with the demand proves to be quite challenging.

4.1 Congestion

There are many existing problems in the current public transportation service, especially in regards to congestion. First of all, most of the public transportation infrastructure is in need of renovation. For example, over 65% of the buses in China are crowded during normal service time. The congestion has caused and will cause longer and longer vehicle delays.

Second, there is a huge gap that needs to be filled between the demand of citizens and current service level. For example, in Zhengzhou (Jikun’s hometown), there is a huge quantity of passengers taking buses every day. Even though there exists over 50 lines of buses in Zhengzhou, it is still very crowded during peak hours. Considering the number of people commuting from other towns into the neighborhoods of Zhengzhou to work, the future demand will continue to increase.

Third, public transportation has unfortunately become less and less appealing to passengers. Based on the opinion survey in 2014 from the Ministry of Transportation, most Chinese citizens complained about the low service quality of public transportation. At the same time, because the purchase power of middle class has risen, many people have their own cars and prefer to drive themselves rather than take public transportation. Currently the percentage of people taking public transportation is only 20% of the entire transportation share.

Figure 2. Public transportation share percentages in different cities.

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(From left to right: New York City, London, Tokyo, Paris, Ningbo, Shenyang, Hefei, Yinchuan, Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, Shanghai, and Beijing)

Fourth, traffic congestion has caused average vehicle speeds to greatly decrease over the past few decades. In many urban cities, vehicle speed has been reduced to under 10 km per hour during rush hours. Vehicle speeds average merely 12.9 km per hour in Guangzhou, for example (ITS22_Sustainability_Analysis).

4.2 Environmental Pollution

Environmental and air pollution has been a very serious issue in China. Coal production and use in China has increased ten-fold since the 1960s and as a result, China is “the world’s largest emitter of CO2 due to fossil-fuel use and cement production (Boden, T.A 2011).” Many people in urban settings cannot bear walking outdoors without a scarf and mask, and visibility has reached all time lows, especially in the summer months.

(Thomson Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/23/us-china-environment-idUSKBN0K105D20141223)

The high rate of urbanization is generally attributed to the factors that led to the significant increase in CO2 emissions. In Beijing, for example, the CO2 emission from vehicles was “over 50% of the total CO2 emission in the 1980s” and will likely to continue increasing over the next few years (ITS22_Sustainability_Analysis).

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As we can see from Figure 8, the total fossil-fuel emissions have doubled starting with the year 2002. Most of the emissions come from a significant increase in emissions from solid fuels (Adapted from http://cdiac.ornl.gov/ftp/trends/emissions/prc.dat).

2008

Emissions from Gas FuelsEmissions from Liquid FuelsEmissions from Solid FuelsEmissions from Gas FlaringEmissions from Cement Production

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1978

Emissions from Gas FuelsEmissions from Liquid FuelsEmissions from Solid FuelsEmissions from Gas FlaringEmissions from Cement Production

A quick comparison allows us to see that the percentage of emissions from solid fuels has staggered at around 75% of total emissions, while percent emissions from gas fuels have increased significantly. In actual figures, it is quite astonishing to note that total emissions in 1978 were only 20.79% of total emissions in 2008 (398,737 thousand metric tons of carbon) and that total emissions in 2008 were a 380.92% increase from 1978 (with 1,917,621 thousand metric tons of carbon).

4.3 Traffic Safety

In certain cities still undergoing a transition process towards a modernized state, paved roads and dirt road run parallel to each other. This runs the risk of passenger safety, as certain places do not have adequate traffic lights or road signs to alert drivers on how to proceed. Meanwhile, traditional modes of transport such as bicycles and wagon carts may be interfering with traffic safety as they frequently come onto the roads and cause traffic delays and congestions.

Traffic accidents alone in China cause approximately 75,000 deaths and more than 174,000 injuries each year (ITS22_Sustainability_Analysis). For the pedestrians and bikers, frequent exposure to more than 65 decibels of noise is common, especially near transport hubs where heavy weight vehicles and trains operate (ITS22_Sustainability).

4.4 Government Policies

Several government policies have been implemented in the past to try to discourage vehicle usage and reduce air pollution. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress is “considering a draft that would impose fines of up to 1 million yuan ($160,000) or even shut down factories that exceed emission limits (Reuters, 2014).”

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In recent years, the Chinese government has attempted to impose several measures in order to effectively manage transport demand. One example is called the “license plate quota auction system.” So far, this system is only effectively carried out in Shanghai. By levying a high tax, the hope is that this will restrict vehicle ownership growth. In 2007, “average daily increment of motor vehicles in Shanghai was 380, about one-third of Beijing’s 1,050 daily average (J10May).”

Another measure is to use a synchronous implementation of increased road parking prices. This measure has been shown to achieve great effect in the Shenzhen city limits as charges are made “according on the area and time and heavy penalties are imposed for exceeding the time limit.” (J10May) This proved more effective than localized, small charging differences seen in Beijing and Shanghai.

The government also introduced a new system called “No Driving, One Day Per Week” that only allows certain vehicles to drive on certain days, depending on the last digit of their vehicle registration number. This policy was originally introduced in the Beijing metropolitan area to clean up the surrounding air in anticipation of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. This measure reduced “about 800,000 motor vehicles per day in the whole city... and thus 30% of government vehicles stay off the roads (J10May).” After the Olympic Games, the officials of Beijing thought that the policy worked remarkably well and kept the policy ever since.

4.5 Use of Outdated Technology

Outdated technology is a growing concern for the modern transportation scene, especially in larger Chinese cities. People traveling in modern vehicles are met with obstacles as slower and older wagon carts and hordes of bikers congest the streets and main road networks. Since they typically do not follow traffic safety rules, this makes it not only difficult for normal traffic navigation, but also a safety hazard for travelers who are not careful.

Additionally, many human traffic-navigators are assigned to major intersections to ease this issue. This alleviates the problem caused by nonconventional vehicles, but is inefficient, as it does not solve the inherent problem of outdated technology (such as adequate automated traffic signals). A better solution would be to forbid all nonconventional vehicles on major streets and highways and instead provide an alternate road path dedicated to pedestrians, bikers, and slower vehicles only.

5. NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION GROWTH HISTORY 1980-2010

China has become one of the most prosperous countries in transportation development. Not only did the traditional transportation methods continued to develop in China, but also an increasing number of new transportation choices have begun to emerge. The project team will focus on the development from 1980 to 2010.

5.1 Transportation Demand

In 1978, China has embraced the most important development opportunity: a new economic reform. Based on the new developing policies from the central government of

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the new People’s Republic of China, many opportunities had emerged in the transportation sector. Based on the world individual vehicles transportation report (China Business Information, 2010), there is partial data from the year 2000 to 2009 (with data only from the first six months that year). The number of vehicle production in 2000 is 2,068,200 and the number of sedans is only 607,400. However, in 2009, these two numbers rapidly increased to 5,990,600 and 3,145,200. Looking at it another way, by looking at the portion of individual vehicles over the entire vehicle demand, the proportion of individual vehicles over the total is 29.37%. This number has since increased to an astounding 52.50%.

Figure 1 Vehicles and Sedans increasing 2000-2009 (half year)

Based on the annual report of Development Research Center of the State Council, this number is going to be more astounding in the future. In 2015, the demand for vehicles will be 14,570,000, and demand for personal vehicles will be 11,260,000. In 2020, the total demand for vehicles will be 20,740,000, and personal vehicles will be 20,430,000 (Newspaper of China vehicles, 2004). This prediction is based on the current developing speed of economy. One of the most important reasons for this trend is the rapid expansion of the middle class and increasingly well-developed road systems. Based on the current increasing rate, family-use sedan will be the main drag force on the car industry. Another important finding from this report revealed that due to the increasing economic power of the middle class, the disposable income will allow them to purchase more luxury cars instead of economy cars. This will also be a huge incentive for car industries to invest in long term, larger scale productions.

Looking beyond the demand for personal transportation, the demand for public transportation will also increase in the future. In 2008, China has already constructed 146,000 km of public transportation network. From this, rail track-based transportation covers 855 km, and Bus Rapid Transit covers 283.8 km. For the average service level,

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every 10,000 people use 11.1 buses. As a result, annual service patron count is 61,400,000,000 (Ministry of Transportation and Road, 2010).

5.2 Energy Consumption

The energy consumption from transportation has increased rapidly in recent years. Based on the China_Rest_of_the_World Energy Consumption chart (Vanek, 2014), there are increasing amounts of energy consumption in every field of transportation. In 1980, the annual energy consumption of transportation in China is 18.47 EJ, and this rate maintained a slow increase until 2002, at which point increased to 44.71 EJ. From 2002, the increasing rate has been raised to a new level. The average increasing rate before 2002 is 4.72%, and this number jumped to 10.58%. In the end of 2010, the energy consumption is 109.43 EJ.

The figure below shows the percentage share of the energy consumption in China vs. U.S. and the entire world. Based on this figure, the total energy consumption of U.S. is 82.68 EJ, and all the other countries in the world totaled 182.11 EJ. The percentage share of China is 6.52%, and U.S. is 29.17%. In 2008, the percentage share of China is 18.20% and U.S. is 21.52%. In 2011, the percentage share of China is 19.34% and U.S. is 18.73%. This marks the first time China surpassed the U.S. From these sets of data, it is obvious that, with the increasing demand of transportation service, the transportation energy consumption of China has risen to an unstoppable rate and became one of the most energy consuming countries in the world.

Figure 3. Energy consumption of China, U.S., and all other countries in the world

In reality, the high-energy demand of China is only a representation of the developing trend of the entire world. From the figure below, emerging countries embrace their developing opportunities in 2002 and, as a result, consumed much more energy than before. The developing countries all over the world have built a large amount of infrastructure to develop their transportation. Meanwhile, people in these countries

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became richer so that they have enough purchase power currently to purchase private cars, which is a main factor for this increase.

Figure 4. Energy consumption in industrial countries, emerging countries and the entire world.

5.3 CO2 Emission Levels

In China, most of the vehicles still use fossil fuel for their elementary energy source. Naturally, the CO2 emission rate has also increased. From 2013 to 2014, the CO2 emission is 6.2 tons per capita (The World Bank IBRD-IDA, 2014). This value is 60% higher than the world average, cited from the academic report of Professor Corinne Le Quere, who is from the Environmental Engineering Department of University College London. In 2013, the total CO2 emission of the entire world is 36,000,000,000 tonnes, the CO2 emission per capita is 5 tonnes. Over all the countries in the world China has emitted more CO2 than any other country, at 29% of the entire world. Compared to China, the United States only emits 16% out of the entire world. One reason for such a high emission rate in China is that most of the vehicle engines have low-efficiency and that there are increasing numbers of fossil fuel power stations.

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Figure 5. Transport in China: Energy Consumption and Emission (passengers)

From the figure above about energy consumption and emission (Institute for Energy and Environmental, May 2008), we can figure out the rapid increase in every transportation method in China. We can easily notice this sharp difference when comparing to Germany. It can also be inferred from this figure that the urban roads and highways are the most important transportation methods in China.

Another aspect of CO2 emission can be revealed from the freight transportation as shown in the figure below. From the same China emission report (Institute for Energy and Environmental, May 2008), it can be observed that the rate on freight transportation is also increasing rapidly.

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Figure 6. Transport in China: Energy Consumption and Emission (freights)

With the background knowledge from the demand increase in China, it will be easier to understand the current CO2 emission rate in China. The primary energy consumption and CO2 emissions of the transport sector in China have increased strongly. From the figure below (Institute for Energy and Environmental, May 2008), a very clear overview of the CO2 consumption in different methods can be seen. In 2005, gasoline consumption on urban road network consumed more energy than any other method of transportation. Diesel consumption is second in the list.

With regards to CO2 emission, energy consumption from road network generated more CO2 than that from any other method. The CO2 emission from Aircraft, Inland, and Coastal Vessels and Rail together is only 20% of the emission from road. This number is very reasonable, since the passenger kilometers from road are 72% of the total passenger kilometers traveling. Compared to road transportation, the passenger kilometers in rail is

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only 21% and in aircraft is only 7%. Because of this, it can be deduced that road transportation still occupy a large portion of the total.

Figure 7. Transport in China: Energy Consumption and Emission - Final Report May 2008

6. STUDY OF CHINESE CITIES

China is a very large country. With a population of 1.3 billion people and an area of 3.705 million square miles, numerous different transportation service levels exist in this country. Based on the economic power and developing level, the project team will separate the cities of China into different levels. Discussions will cover big cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, as well as medium cities, such as Zhengzhou and Wuhan.

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6.1 Regional Discussions

China is recently known the world over for its huge plan on High Speed Railway (HSR). China plans to have high-speed rail services running among 70 percent of key cities by 2020, which would cover more than 80 percent of the airline network. About 16,000 km of railway for 350-km/h trains will be built on the mainland in the next 10 years, according to a blueprint by the Ministry of Railways. By 2012, work will be completed on 42 high-speed links covering 13,000 km, according to the blueprint (China Daily, 2009). Mr. Wu Wenhua, a researcher with the National Development and Reform Commission's comprehensive transport institute, said developing high-speed rail networks is in line with the demand for high-efficiency, low-emissions transport. As one of the representatives of future transportation, the new HSR must be environmentally-friendly and energy-saving.

Besides High-Speed Railway, airline transportation has always played a significant role in China. There are three main airline companies in China: Eastern Airlines, Air China and Southern Airlines. In 2012, the freight transportation on airlines is 60.82 billion tonne-km; this is an increase of 6.1% from the previous year. The passengers served is 0.319 billion, which increased by 9.2%. The revenue from this year is 21.1 billion yuan, or approximately 3.3 billion U.S. dollars (Chinese Business Information, 2012).

If we focused on the regional difference, it is very obvious that the transportation demand and service is strongly connected with the development level. Take airline as an example, based on the report information from Chinese Business Information. Over 70% of the service and operation is concentrated in the southeastern part of China, which contains 67% of economic power and 70% of the population. There are eleven international airports in China, and 10 of them are located in the southeastern part. Not surprisingly, the airline development is also growing rapidly in recent years. The Urumqi international airport, which is located in the northwestern part of China, has a demand-increasing rate of 20% annually. The infrastructure construction and service level is also growing at an enormous speed. From these trends, it can be seen that although China put more importance in the south-eastern regional development, the north-western part still embrace a huge development potential in transportation.

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Figure 8. Map of railways in China, with high-speed rail lines shown in color

A similar situation also holds true for the railway service. From the figure shown above, most of the railway service is concentrated in the eastern part of China (National Statistics Database, 2014). A glance at China’s topographic map suggests that western provinces face several problems. First of all, the entire western regions are land-locked with sizable distances to the eastern coast, while the coastal provinces have long coastlines. Second, most of the plains with arable lands are concentrated on the eastern coastal belt, while high plateaus and mountain ranges occupy the western regions. This will create many problems when building railways since railway is the most geographically restricted transportation method. Even more so, western regions have less suitable climate for agricultural production. The northwest region is arid, while the southwest region suffers from deficit in energy sources. The coastal provinces, on the other hand, enjoy humid and temperate monsoonal climate. Thanks to such geographic characteristics, the early Open-Door policy that started from the two southeast provinces of Guangdong and Fujian had the intentions of exploiting the locational advantages of the coast, especially their proximity to foreign investors, international markets and sea-based transportation routes. However, as a result, the other sectors of China are still under developed for a long time. Without enough policies and financial support from the central

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government, the sharp difference between the transportation situations became apparent, even in the airline sector.

However, in recent years, the situation has gradually changed. With the establishment of the China Western Development policy, thousands of construction projects and financial contribution policies are approved by the central government. The development of transportation in western part has finally picked up momentum.

The construction of Qinghai-Tibet railway is one of the most significant examples of the transportation development in western China. With consumer demand increasing rapidly and the eagerness of regional connections strong, the central government of Beijing decided to construct a railway that connects to Tibet, which is a very difficult and time consuming project. There are many technical difficulties for such a railway. First of all, about half of the second section was built on bare constant permafrost. In the summer, the uppermost layer thaws and the ground become muddy. Additionally, the heat from the trains passing above is able to melt the permafrost even if it is a small change in temperature. Second, the oxygen shortages due to the permafrost are a major engineering challenge. For areas of permafrost that are not very fragile, an embankment of large rocks is sufficient to address this. However, in the most fragile areas, the rail bed must be elevated like a bridge. In order to solve this problem, the engineers built elevated tracks with pile-driven foundations sunk deep into the ground. Similar to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, portions of the track are also passively cooled with ammonia-based heat exchangers.

Figure 9: Bridge of Qinghai-Tibet railway on permafrost horizon

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The integrity and strength of the railroad is not fully secure. Due to climate change, temperatures in the Tibetan Plateau will increase by an estimated two to three degrees Celsius. This change is sufficient enough to melt the permafrost and therefore affect the integrity of the entire system. The effects of climate change have yet to be seen.

The change in airline and railway is only the beginning. With more and more construction projects being established in the western part of China, the development level will be balanced in the future across the entire nation. With the large amount of resources and human power in this country, China has the confidence to build a modern transportation network in every sector.

6.2 Large Cities

6.2.1 Beijing

As the capital of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing has embraced most resources and financial support to build a modern transportation infrastructure.

Urban Road and Subway

Beijing is infamous for its huge amount of vehicles. The demand for urban road transportation has twice surpassed the service level of current road infrastructure. One of the primary reasons is due to Beijing’s heavy population. The total population in this city is over 11,000,000 and the citizens within the city limits exceed 7,220,000. As the center of politics, economy, and culture, the floating population of Beijing is over 3,500,000 based on another calculation. However, over 70% of the total population is squeezed into the 10% urban planning center. This irregular residential policy generated a lot of problems, including the drive to work for most people. From the research on China Highway, in a survey of over 400 main intersections in urban areas, there are more than 55 intersections with vehicle traffic of 1,550,000 during peak hour. Also, 51 intersections have vehicle traffic in the range of 5,000 to 10,000 and 99 of the 400 intersections have severe congestion problems. Of all the 110 main avenues inside third-ring roads, there are over 80 that experience saturated or super saturated situations.

In order to relieve this situation, the Beijing Government has vehicle restriction policy starting in 2007. At first, only vehicles ending in odd numbers are permitted to drive on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday while vehicles ending in even numbers are permitted to drive on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. There are no restrictions on Sunday. After the Beijing Olympic Games, this policy became more lax. An updated policy means that there will only be one set of number restriction. For example, on Monday, vehicle numbers ending with 1 and 5 will be restricted, Tuesday will be 2 and 7, Wednesday 3 and 8, and so forth. From the research of Beijing Transportation Department, during the three days surveyed, there was a vehicle decrease of 1,300,000 vehicles, over 90% of the roads never faced vehicle congestion problems, and CO2

emission decreased 5815.2 tonnes.

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However, the effect of this policy has been less and less effective day by day since the total number of vehicles has also increased rapidly. In the first year there are 600,000 vehicles decreased daily. Nevertheless, this number decreased to 400,000 in 2013. The CO2 emission has decreased 310 tonnes per day in the first year. But in 2007, this number was only 260 tonnes. It is obvious to say that more and more citizens own their own cars. Furthermore, many people disagree with this policy since it can be considered a violation of consumer rights. Based on the open survey of Beijing, over 80% of people disagree with this regulation. Even though most of them admitted that number restriction can relieve traffic pressure, they hold a strong viewpoint that Beijing government should adjust the current traffic operation situation in Beijing and redesign most of the urban networks to solve this problem instead.

Figure 10. Beijing Subway network

The subway issues are also very severe. Because of the restriction policy, most of the passengers have shifted to subway transportation instead. The current subway transportation network of Beijing is developed enough. From the figure below, there are currently seventeenth subway lines and 232 stations in Beijing, which almost covers the entire urban planning area. The annual ridership is 9.758 million ridership every weekday, which makes the Beijing subway system the second longest and busiest in the

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entire world. Considering the increasing number of expected ridership in the future, the subway system will experience more pressure in the coming years. The Beijing government is considering an increase in ticket price, adding train frequency and improving the service capacity in the future in order to solve this problem.

High-Speed Rail

High-speed rail is one of the most developed transportation method in recent years in China. The high-speed rail (HSR) system has lifted the passengers’ service to an entire new level. There are several significant HSR rail initiatives from Beijing, such as the Beijing-Shanghai HSR rail, Beijing-Guangzhou HSR and Beijing-Harbin HSR. These three HSR rails connect the central capital with the north southeastern and southernmost parts of China.

The construction of high-speed railways in China began with the building of the Qinhuangdao–Shenyang High-Speed Railway in 1999. Now the high-speed rail network in China is the largest in the world. As of the end of 2012, there are about 17,000 kilometers of high-speed rail in service, accommodating trains of an average speed of 200 km/h or higher. The central government is ambitious, and as a result, Beijing government is planning to invest $300 billion to construct the largest, fastest, and most technologically advanced high-speed railway system in the world by 2020. It is predicted that the HSR network will reach 30,000 kilometers when the major rail lines are completed. Besides just Beijing, the entire China's high-speed railway network is made up of four components; upgraded pre-existing rail lines will be able to accommodate even more high-speed trains in the future. It is forecasted that a national grid of mostly passenger-dedicated HSR lines (PDLs), certain regional intercity HSR lines, and the Maglev High-Speed Line will appear in the future in 10 years.

The main high-speed rail network in China is like a grid, which mainly consists of 8 long-distance high-speed rail lines: four north–south HSR lines and four east–west HSR lines. Except for the Qingdao–Taiyuan HSR, all HSR lines of the rail grid are longer than 1,000 kilometers. In 2012 the total length of HSR lines in the main grid reached 12,000 kilometers. The PDLs accommodate trains of a speed of up to 300 km/h; and mixed passenger and cargo lines serve trains of speeds of between 200 and 250 km/h.

Take Beijing-Shanghai line as an example. The total length of this rail is 1,433 km and the intended speed is 350km/h. The average journey time from Beijing station to Shanghai Hongqiao station is 3 hours and 58 minutes. The daily ridership of this line is over 80,000, which is the national record of railway operation. This amount of service rate is a great help for the business and political connections between the two biggest cities in China (China Highlights, 2014). Based on the new open survey this year, over 60% of passengers will consider HSR rail as their first choice of journey between Beijing and Shanghai. Most of them stated that HSR is a convenient, comfortable and timesaving method of traveling.

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Figure 11. Beijing-Shanghai normal railway and HSR railway constructed in a parallel pattern

Air Transport

Once air transport in Beijing is mentioned, it is very straightforward to mention the Beijing Capital International Airport, which is now known as Terminal 3. Construction of Terminal 3 started on 28 March 2004 and is one of the infrastructure requirements for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Game. A consortium of NACO (Netherlands Airport Consultants B.V), UK Architect Foster and Partners, and ARUP designed Terminal 3. The original budget for this project was $3.5 billion. Far grander in size and scale than the preexisting terminals, Terminal 3 was the largest airport terminal-building complex in the world to be built in a single phase with 986,000 square meters (10,610,000 square feet) in total floor area at its opening. Terminal 3 of the BCIA is currently the second largest airport passenger terminal building in the world. Its title as the world's largest was surrendered on 14 October 2008 to Dubai International Airport's Terminal 3, which has 1,713,000 square meters (18,440,000 square feet) of floor space. Currently, it mainly houses Air China, Oneworld, Star Alliance, and other domestic and international flights. Over 20 airline companies have service in this monumental airport (International Airport Stats, 2013).

6.2.2 Shanghai

There are plenty of great ways to describe Shanghai, one of the most developed cities in the entire world. Having embraced the policies of the central government, the distinguished talented persons, and numerous development opportunities, Shanghai draws the attention of the entire world in the new century. In order to make Shanghai a more

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stable and modern metropolitan, the central government has spent a large sum on this “Eastern New York City” in order to keep the development progress. Transportation is one of the essential elements.

Subway

Shanghai has the world’s longest subway network. The total distance of the Shanghai subway system is 538 km, which contains 14 subway lines and 329 stations. Even though it is only the third city with a subway system in China, the annual revenues have already occupied the top rank for a couple of years.

Figure 12. Shanghai Subway network

Compared to subway system in Beijing, the subway system of Shanghai is more centralized. Unlike the urban regional planning method of Beijing, the urbanized areas of Shanghai are mostly concentrated in a few districts such as Pudong, Hongqiao and so forth. This setup forces the subway network to connect the central areas to suburban areas. The evolution of the metro system in Shanghai is similar to a rocket boosting; in the initial few years between 1993 and 2003, only two significant lines were established. Then in the next 10 years, the rest of the lines were built in a very rapid and efficient manner. Furthermore, the subway system planning is also very scientific. By applying the

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Cross-Platform technology in interchange stations, the peak hour customer flow rate has been efficiently handled. Also, the Shanghai transportation department controls the real-time traffic condition to decide the rate of subway trains during certain time periods.

Figure 13. Mileage increase of metro system in Shanghai (Table view)

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Figure 14. Mileage increase of metro system in Shanghai (Graph view)

Air Transport

There are two airports in Shanghai: Hongqiao International Airport and Pudong International Airport, which is unique in China. There are over 1,100 flights traveling to and from the two airports everyday, which connects most of the cities in China and other big metropolitan areas in the world such as Tokyo, New York City, London, Paris and so forth (Statistics of Shanghai, 2011).

6.3 Medium Cities

6.3.1 Zhengzhou

Zhengzhou can be considered as one of the representatives of developing cities in the central part of China. Unlike Beijing, Shanghai, or Hong Kong, Zhengzhou did not have a very long history of modern economic development, and there are no significant policies established in this city. However, there are two important railways in this city: Jingguang and Longhai. Because millions of freight and passengers take interchange in this city, the local government seized this opportunity and initiated the way to make Zhengzhou more prosperous.

Railway Transport

As a significant transportation hub in the central part of China, Zhengzhou has a very heavy railway transportation demand. For freight train transportation, the railway stations need to mark the number in order to transfer cargo. The daily cargo transfer amount is 31,464 units, which is an astounding number. The freight transfer in Beijing is 24,134 and 21,467 in Shanghai (Railway Information Net, 2011). If one observes the inner structure of Zhengzhou Main Railway Station, he will notice the large scale of land occupation and large number of ridership. In Zhengzhou Station alone, there are assisted yards for cargo distribution. There are 898 total station group turnouts, 828 signals, 228 various lines and a total line extension of 454 km. All these make Zhengzhou Station the largest cargo distribution railway station in the entire country. All the freight trains that arrive at Zhengzhou Station will take operation, disintegration, marshaling, and starting job tasks in a continuous and efficient manner (Railway Information Net, 2011).

The annual customer transportation is also very heavy in this city. The daily ridership in Zhengzhou Station is 60,000, which is the fourth highest in the entire nation. Furthermore, over 47% of the passengers need to make interchange service and take another train during the same day, which is the second highest in China after Beijing (Railway Information Net, 2011).

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Figure 15. Zhengzhou Main Railway Station

Furthermore, the HSR Railway has also extended to Zhengzhou for more efficient customer service. From the picture below, one can notice that the newly constructed Zhengzhou East Railway Station, which is a world famous HSR station, utilizes the new pattern of railway station temperature control system, high-tech material for the upper roof (which is used to protect the roof from sunlight and water damage), and automatic light control system.

Figure 16. Zhengzhou East Railway Station

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Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)

Zhengzhou has the most developed Bus Rapid Transit System in China. The construction of this new project has lasted for two years, and the result is very positive. There are 39 BRT lines and 268 stations in the urban area until April 2014. The BRT system has already taken the place of normal bus system and provides a more efficient way for daily travel. The price for each passenger is only approximately 2 yuan (40 cents), which is very economical.

Figure 17. Bus Rapid Transit station in Zhengzhou High-tech Development Zone

6.3.2 Wuhan

The project team picked Wuhan as the representative of medium cities based on the following reasons: first, it has a very high rate of development in recent years. Even though it is still not enough to put it into the list of large cities, Wuhan has the potential to become one of them. Second, Wuhan has a very high population. In 2000, there are already 8.313 million permanent residents in this city. There are numerous methods of travel in this city. Wuhan, located in a central location and at the intersection of the navigable Han River and the Yangtze River, is a shipping, rail, and highway center between northern and southern China and the coastal cities. With this convenient transportation location, people can get to other areas more quickly and easily. The new bullet train system especially makes for quicker and easier transportation among important cities and throughout central China (China Travel Designer, 2014).

High-Speed Rail

The High Speed Rail is the most developed transportation method in Wuhan. The National HSR plan has invested a large sum of money in this city. There are two main HSR stations: one in Hankou district and another in Wuchang district. Each of them plays an important role in both of the banks of the Yangze River. The HSR network will allow

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passengers in Wuhan to travel to Beijing in only six hours. Furthermore, the newly constructed HSR line, Wuhan-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway, is a significant railway connecting the central and south part of China. The total length of this railway is 601 miles, which connects cities such as Wuhan, Changsha, Qingyuan all the way down to Guangzhou. The operational length of the HSR in Wuhan is the second longest in the Chinese HSR network, which is only shorter than the Beijing-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway (China View, 2009). The operational speed of Wuhan-Guangzhou HSR is 186 mph, and was at the time the world's fastest train service, initially using coupled CRH2C and CRH3C trains that could sustain an average of 313 km/h (194 mph) in non-stop commercial service before speeds were reduced nationwide in 2011.

7. CONCLUSION

The transportation networks in China is developing at an undeniably fast pace. This has resulted in much more efficiency in the way people move and travel. Indeed, the government-led efforts since the 1990s to change the transportation scene have led to almost the entire country being connected by expressways and railways. However, these rapid improvements have also brought out new social, environmental, and economic challenges that need to be addressed. In the near future, railways, expressways, and airways will continue to develop, and as cities become larger and more populated, they will increasingly become central hubs of transportation as well.

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8. REFERENCES

1. Fossil-Fuel CO2 Emissions from the People's Republic of China, http://cdiac.ornl.gov/ftp/trends/emissions/prc.dat2. “(J10MAY)” Practices and Policies of Green Urban Transport in China, http://www.lta.gov.sg/ltaacademy/doc/J10May-p26Jiang&Li_GreenTransportChina.pdf3. China Transportation Briefing: 5 Trends to Watch in China's Urban Transport in 2013, http://thecityfix.com/blog/5-trends-watch-china-urban-transport-2013-1/4. Implementing Sustainable Urban Travel Policies in China, http://www.internationaltransportforum.org/jtrc/DiscussionPapers/DP201112.pdf5. Transport in China, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_China6. Sustainability Analysis of Chinese Transport Policy, http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/2010/1/ITS22_Sustainability_analysis_Uploadable.pdf7. National Bureau of Statistics of China, http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/Statisticaldata/AnnualData/8. Principal Aggregate Indicators on National Economic and Social Development and Growth Rates, http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/2014/indexeh.htm9. Population and Its Composition, http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/2014/zk/html/Z0201E.htm10. Chinese Business Information, 201011. Newspaper of China vehicles, 2004 12. Strategic thinking of Chinese urban public transportation development, Ministry of Transportation and Road, 201013. Opinion Survey, Ministry of Transportation and Road, 201414. China_Restoftheworld Energy consumption chart, Francis Vanek, 201415. CO2 emission Data, The World Bank IBRD-IDA, 201416. Transport in China: Energy Consumption and Emissions of Different Transport Modes, Institute for Energy and Environmental, May 200817. China Travel Designer, 201418. Wuhan Guangzhou bullet train link to hit airlines hard, China View, 200919. The operation report of the biggest three airline companies, Chinese Business Information, www.askci.com20. National Railway Service Length, National Statistics Database, 201421. The dynamic transportation information analysis of Beijing, China Highway, 2003, http://www.chinahighway.com/news/2003/38353.php22. Annual Operation Analysis, Beijing Subway International, 201423. High Speed Rail in China, China Highlights, 201424. Overview the Beijing Capital International Airport, International Airport Stats, 201325. The highest subway demand of Shanghai, New Citizen Internet, 2010 http://sh.xinmin.cn/shizheng/2010/10/24/7360621.html.26. 2011 Shanghai National Economic and Social Development Statistics Bulletin, Statistics of Shanghai, 2011, http://www.stats-sh.gov.cn/sjfb/201202/239488.html27. Zhengzhou Railway Junction, Railway Information Net, 2011, http://www.railcn.net/knowledge/railway-station/rail222.html28. The construction of brand new railway station in Zhenghzou, Gaotie internet, 2014, http://www.gaotie.cn/zhengzhoudongzhan/

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9. LIST OF VISUALS

Pictures in front (Clockwise):Shanghai[Intro 1]http://timecaptures.com/shanghai-yanan-elevated-city/#

Zhengzhou[Intro 2]http://architecturerichmond.com/2014/02/04/sister-city-profile-zhengzhou/

Beijing[Intro 3]http://online.thatsmags.com/post/shanghai-beijing-have-some-of-the-cheapest-accommodation-in-the-world

Wuhan[Intro 4]http://www.cedpro.org/cityguide/wuhan-photo-gallary.html

Guangzhou[Intro 5]http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2010-11/13/content_11544663.htm

[Intro 6]https://forbesconrad.com/taxonomy/term/4

Made in China[Intro 7]http://www.ilovegenerator.com/made-in-love-china-1616589

Figure 1 Vehicles and Sedans increasing 2000-2009 (half year)(Chinese Business Information, 2010)

Figure 2. Public transportation share rate in different cities.(From left to right: New York City, London, Tokyo, Paris, Ningbo, Shenyang, Hefei, Yinchuan, Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, Shanghai, Beijing)(Newspaper of China vehicles, 2004)

Figure 3. Energy consumption of China, U.S. And all other countries of the world(China_Restoftheworld Energy consumption chart, Francis Vanek, 2014)

Figure 4. Energy consumption in industrial countries, emerging countries and the entire world.(China_Restoftheworld Energy consumption chart, Francis Vanek, 2014)

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Figure 5. Transport in China: Energy Consumption and Emission (passengers)(Transport in China: Energy Consumption and Emissions of Different Transport Modes, Institute for Energy and Environmental, May 2008)

Figure 6. Transport in China: Energy Consumption and Emission (freights)(Transport in China: Energy Consumption and Emissions of Different Transport Modes, Institute for Energy and Environmental, May 2008)

Figure 7. Transport in China: Energy Consumption and Emission - Final Report May 2008(CO2 emission Data, The World Bank IBRD-IDA, 2014)

Figure 8. Map of railways in China, with high-speed rail lines shown in color(National Railway Service Length, National Statistics Database, 2014)

Figure 9. Bridge of Qinghai-Tibet railway on permafrost horizon(China Highway, 2003)

Figure 10 Beijing Subway network(Beijing Subway International, 2014)

Figure 11. Beijing-Shanghai normal railway and HSR railway constructed in a parallel pattern(High Speed Rail in China, China Highlights, 2014)

Figure 12 Shanghai Subway network(Statistics of Shanghai, 2011)

Figure 13 Mileage increase of metro system in Shanghai (Table view)(New Citizen Internet, 2010)

Figure 14 Mileage increase of metro system in Shanghai (Graph view)(New Citizen Internet, 2010)

Figure 15 Zhengzhou Main Railway Station(Railway Information Net, 2011)

Figure 16 Zhengzhou East Railway Station(Railway Information Net, 2011)

Figure 17 Bus Rapid Transit station in Zhengzhou High-tech Development Zone(Zhengzhou BRT system network, 2013)

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