China to start Beijing-Shanghai bullet train service amidst negative comments

Even as it prepares to open a Beijing to Shanghai bullet train service from 1 July, China's steadily expanding high-speed rail network is coming for increasing criticism among Chinese citizens and news media, not least for its high system costs and pricey fares. The quality of construction and the allegation of self-dealing by a rail minister who had to go earlier this year on allegations of corruption are also subjects of much negative comment.

But, what is being missed in the controversy, is the very real economic benefits that the world's most advanced fast rail system is bringing to China - and the competitive advantages it offers the nation as it competes with the US and Europe.

Just as the interstate highway system built half a century ago facilitated the development of modern, national commerce in the US, the ambitious rail rollout is seen to be instrumental in fast-tracking the economic development of the sprawling, populous nation.

Crews comprising as many as 100,000 people per line have built about half of the 10,000-mile network, over a period of just six years, in many cases ahead of schedule. This included the Beijing-to-Shanghai line that was not originally expected to open until next year. The entire system is on course for completion by 2020.

For the US and Europe, the implications don't stop admiration of the pace of Communist-style civil engineering, as China's manufacturing prowess and global export machine are likely to emerge more powerful as 200-mile-an-hour trains link cities and provinces that earlier took as 24 hours to reach by road or rail from the entrepreneurial seacoast.

Meanwhile, real estate prices and investment continue to surge in over 200 inland cities that have already been connected by high-speed rail in the last three years. Not surprisingly, these cities are attracting businesses by the dozens now that they are just a few hours by bullet train from China's busiest and most international metropolises.