May 30, 2008: A train on a test run passes Wuqing Station of the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway. by Yuan Ruilun

A train passes Beijing’s Yongdingmen Overpass during a test run along the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway. by Yuan Ruilun

Driver of an express train along the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway. by Yuan Ruilun

March 9, 2008: A worker at the construction site of the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway in Tianjin. by Vincent Du

April 18, 2007, Beijing Railway Station: The Beijing-Tianjin D531 “Harmony CRH” departs the platform. At 0:00 a.m. that day, the sixth large-scale speedup of the national railway system officially began. In this picture, foreign passengers enjoy the comfortable train compartment. CFP

June 26, 2008: The Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway, China’s first railway allowing a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour, debuts to media. PHOW/CFP

June 26, 2008: This reporter is about to board the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway, hitting a top speed of 350 kilometers per hour. by Hao Xiaotian/CFP

F1 Finesse
On June 24, the BTIR was tested: 394.3 kilometers per hour – a speed even faster than that of a Boeing 747 lifting off – and 120 kilometers in 25’10”.
These remarkable benchmark speeds are now officially inscribed to the historical record of China’s railway construction, and worldwide attention is now focused on this highest-speed railway currently operating on Earth.
The BTIR line includes five stops: Beijing, Yizhuang, Yongle, Wuqing, and Tianjin. And 87 percent of the track is based on bridge engineering.
Although speeds reached nearly 400 kilometers per hour during tests, in routine operation trains on the BTIR will adhere to a maximum limit of 350 kilometers per hour.
The BTIR adopted 500 meters of seamless tracks, the first such application in the world, and the precisely-welded rails and delicately-designed track gradient ensure superior operating stability and comfort.
Despite the F1-speed, passengers will not experience light-headedness. Similar to the maglev trains, a special window treatment will provide a comfortable visual experience for those who love to view the passing landscape, and noise levels are far less than standard trains.
An array of high-tech services, such as an automatic ticketing and check-in system, an automatic passenger transport management system, and a modern train dispatching systems, are incorporated into the BTIR line. From the moment a passenger enters the station right up through boarding, an automatic directional device will guide that person to the proper train code and platform. If uncertain, passengers can “dialogue” with the system to answer their questions.
Passenger-oriented customized concepts are embodied in the trains shuttling along the BTIR, such as elegant interior settings, a good visual effect, modern illumination system with concertedly distributed light sources, revolving seats, multimedia film and television system, handicapped-accessible bathrooms, wheelchair storage, and infant-care tables. All interior materials meet international standards for environmental protection.
The 30-Minute Zone
According to Zhao Hong, deputy director of the Economy Research Institute of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, by shortening the travel time between Beijing and Tianjin, the operation of the BTIR will effectively ease previous transportation difficulties that have long restricted the cooperation between the two cities, thus offering new opportunities for regional economic cooperation.
Beijing boasts abundant resources, a developed service industry and a galaxy of high-end sectors, while Tianjin enjoys an advantage in manufacturing, port resources, and logistics industry. Shortening the city-to-city travel time to 30 minutes, the BTIR will allow for greater talent and resource exchange between the two cities, and a half-hour regional economic circle will thus form.
To the city of Beijing, as a supporting project for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, the BTIR, with a great transportation capacity, will help ease the transport burden of the city and facilitate transit during the Games. The BTIR will also encourage Beijing-based enterprises and firms to expand their business to Tianjin, the Bohai-rim area, and all of North China. Comparably matured software sectors will particularly benefit from the railroad’s lower cost, with a boost in market opportunity. In addition, the newly-completed railway will channel Beijing’s developed sectors of finance, art design, consulting and law to more Tianjin clientele.
To the city of Tianjin, which has long strived to develop into an international logistics center, the high-speed railway will provide a greater business platform for the logistics industry and the exchange of human resources, thus lowering the cost of logistics. Meanwhile, the operation of the BTIR will advance the integration of Beijing and Tianjin real estate markets, and the more affordable home prices in Tianjin and convenient intercity transportation will attract more buyers and investors from Beijing. In addition, the port advantage and low office cost in Tianjin will attract financial firms and cultural programs from Beijing, so as to further the commercial function of Tianjin and promote the economic growth of the city as a large metropolis. The improvement of the city function will lure more high-income people and service agencies, and finally contribute to the formation of a metropolitan living circle featuring a variety of internationalized commercial establishments.
Beijing and Tianjin are both located at the center of the Bohai-rim Economic Zone (BEZ), one of China’s fastest-growing and most dynamic economic regions. Embracing Beijing, Tianjin, and some 20 other cities and 60 ports in Liaoning, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, and Inner Mongolia, and home to thousands of enterprises, the BEZ is considered by economists as China’s “Third Pole of Economic Growth,” following the Changjiang (Yangtze) River Delta and the Pearl River Delta areas.
The passage between Beijing and Tianjin serves as the axis of the BEZ, and the operation of the BTIR will enhance the radiating effect of the two cities in the sharing of talent, economic cooperation, and logistics of transportation, and promote resource integration and share among Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei Province. The upshot will be the promotion and acceleration of the more coordinated economic development of the BEZ as a whole.
High-Speed Lifestyle
The first beneficiaries of the newly-completed high-speed railway will be the average citizens of Beijing and Tianjin, whose lifestyles, including food, housing, and transit, will be enhanced.
Among those are the so-called “intercity shuttlers,” who work from Monday to Friday in Beijing and return their Tianjin homes on the weekend. But poor traffic conditions often put a damper on their otherwise happy end-of-week homecoming.
Zhang Qiang, whose home is in the Nankai District of Tianjin, now works at a college in Beijing. Each weekend he drives to Tianjin, but a one-way journey takes nearly three hours. Upon finally arriving home, he is exhausted.
For people like Zhang, the completion of the BTIR is obviously good news. “The frequency of train service is close to that of bus, but the speed is three times faster, and there are no worries about traffic jams,” said Ms. Li, another Beijing-Tianjin intercity shuttler.
Compared to Beijing, the cost of living in Tianjin is relatively low. After the BTIR is put into service, many Beijing citizens are expected to do their consuming in Tianjin.
Beijing is an inland city, with no seascape. So, particularly in recent years, spending the summer holiday on the Tianjin seashore and savoring the fresh seafood in autumn has become an increasingly favorite pastime for many Beijingers. In addition to the coastal attractions, the distinctive local culture of Tianjin is equally appealing to Beijing tourists.
According to statistics released by the Tianjin Tourism Administration, one-third of the domestic tourists visiting Tianjin are from Beijing. It is expected that the BTIR will bring even more visitors from the nation’s capital.
Mr. Liu, a bank employee in Beijing, originally intended to hold his wedding ceremony in Beijing, but he later hesitated after learning about the astronomical cost for a wedding banquet in the Olympics host city. Then, heeding a friend’s advice, he reserved facilities for the wedding banquet in Tianjin, at a price about 40 percent less than that in Beijing. “We plan to take the high-speed train to Tianjin, and that will make our wedding particularly meaningful,” Liu said.
Because of the BTIR, intercity migration will be made possible.
Li Chengxiao, a native of Tianjin who works at the Crown Plaza Hotel Beijing, lives in a rented house in Beijing, more than a hundred kilometers from his parents in Tianjin. Although he married his Beijing-born-and-raised wife last October, due to the incredibly-high price for a new condominium, the couple remains in the rented house. Now that the intercity railway is in operation, and considering the comparably affordable price in Tianjin, the purchase of a new home in his home city is on Liu’s agenda.