Published : 2025-10-12
On 12 October 2003, the T60 train from Changchun to Beijing departed from Shenyang North Railway Station and entered the Qinhuangdao-Shenyang High-speed Railway (秦瀋客運專線), marking the official opening and operation of the first high-speed passenger dedicated line in Chinese Mainland.
This line was also Mainland's first high-speed railway in the standard sense, and it can be regarded as the starting point for China's railways entering the era of high-speed rail.
The Qinhuangdao-Shenyang High-speed Railway is the first high-speed railway in the Chinese Mainland connecting Hebei Province and Liaoning Province. It is part of the Beijing-Harbin Railway, serving as an important channel connecting the North China region and the Northeast China region, and is also an important part of the northern section of the coastal corridor in China's "Eight Vertical and Eight Horizontal" high-speed railway network.
The Qinhuangdao-Shenyang High-speed Railway has a total length of 404.64 km, with a total investment of 15.7 billion RMB. It is a double-track electrified railway mainly for passenger transport. Its construction began in August 1999 and was completed in June 2003.
According to the railway authorities, the initial designed speed of the Qinhuangdao-Shenyang High-speed Railway reached 200 km/h, with provisions for an increase to 250 km/h.
At that time, the construction of the Qinhuangdao-Shenyang High-speed Railway had two major significances.
Firstly, it solved the problem of insufficient transport capacity for traffic entering and leaving the Shanhai Pass (山海關).
Secondly, it could form a rapid corridor between Beijing and Shenyang. In the long term, it could also link the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway and the Harbin-Dalian High-Speed Railway, forming a high-speed passenger rail network in China's eastern region.
The completion and opening of the Qinhuangdao-Shenyang High-speed Railway not only established Chinese Mainland's first fast, safe, and comfortable passenger corridor, completely resolving the strained transport capacity situation at the Shanhai Pass, but also pioneered a new model of separating passenger and freight traffic in China's railway transport.
It also enabled China to master the complete set of technology and equipment for 200 km/h class passenger dedicated lines with independent intellectual property rights, and cultivated a large number of technical talents in scientific research, design, and construction.
In addition, the completion and opening of the Qinhuangdao-Shenyang High-speed Railway also promoted technological progress in China's railway industry, enhanced the construction and manufacturing standards of China's railways, shortened the gap with the world's advanced high-speed rail technology levels, thereby laying a solid technical foundation for the subsequent construction of high-speed railways.
