YC27560293
CULTURAL HERITAGE - THE RAILROAD 01: RAIL AND TRACK
'Where there is railway, there is civilization.' Railway can bring about resources, manpower and culture. It can bring about prosperity.

China is a huge country which has a length of 5500km and a width of 5200km. On this 9,600,000 sq km of land, it was the British who started building railway - they built a half mile long railway in front of Xuanwu Gate in Beijing in 1865. Now, more than a century later, China has developed the 350 km/h Wuguang Railway from steam engines. Its railway system has covered a total length of about 80,000km, bringing forth numerous stations to the huge territory. The modernization of a country calls for the development of high speed railway. International definitions regard trains with a speed of more than 200km/h as high speed trains. In the next three years, China is going to develop high speed rail travelling across major municipals, provinces and cities with a budgeted project cost of 1300 billion yuan. By 2020, over 16,000 km of railways will be handling trains of over 200km/h. It is going to surpass countries with well developed railway system for decades, such as Japan, France and Germany.

China's railway network is as complicated as the veins of a leaf, sending people and goods to different places unceasingly. In remote and desolate areas, railway not only provides logistics services, it also influences the life of the locals, bringing people even from one country to another. A railway track may look simple, but it brings life to barren land, sends warmth to the chill and shines light for the poor. It spreads culture and gathers people. Culture in China takes diverse forms across space; its people live their life in various ways, and it is railway which can bring us to the ends of the land to understand and experience different culture.

In this episode, we are going to visit China Railway Museum to take a look at the oldest trains and the newest high speed rail. Our young presenters, Rannes Man, Tiffany Lee, Kay Ho, Leanne Ho and Anjaylia Chan will introduce more railway lines to us, including the northernmost railway, Nenlin Railway, the southernmost railway, Yuehai Railway, the high speed railway and trains in Taiwan, the railway with a 8.5cm difference in track widths, Ji'er Railway, the world's highest railway, Qingzang Railway and the Xinjiang Railway.
DVD
30 minutes
2011
USD 500.00