What kind of vehicle（交通工具） will you choose when travelling between provinces? Many may say trains now, the high-speed-railways（高速铁路）have connected most places of China.
China's high-speed railways are over 20,000 km in length. It is the world's longest and makes up 60 percent of the world's total high-speed-railway lines.
Besides length, China also does well in speed. China is the only country with trains running at 350 km an hour, such as the Beijing-Tianjin and Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railways.
With these surprising numbers, it's easy to forget that China wasn't an early starter in the high-speed rail game. Japan started half a century ago, while Germany did 20 years ago. China only began to build its high-speed railways 14 years ago.
China's high-speed-railways play an important role in many aspects（方面）."The high-speed railways not onlybridgedifferent places, but also connect people, information and goods. It greatly develops the economy（经济） in different areas, people's lives and tourism（旅游业）, said Huang Xin, an official from the China Railway Corp.
Yet, China's building of high-speed railways is still going on. The National Developmen and Reform Commission said in July that China plans to have 38,000 km of high-speed railways by 2025.
