Linking China’s Railways from the Capital to The Great Northeast

Ticket A81 | 06 September 2019

In just over a year’s time, Beijingers will be gifted with a new High Speed route from Beijing to The Great Northeast, or Dongbei (东北) as it’s known in Chinese. That’s good news for those of us who will absolutely hate Beijing in the summer.

Trapped in a microclimate (not unlike the likes of Paris and ilk), Beijing’s summers are widely known for being way too hot. (This year was also another very wet year. My gang at home had to send me messages: “David, don’t go out between X and Y o’clock, it’s going to pour hard!…”)

The plan is to make trains leave Beijing from the refreshed Xinghuo station (which will have a link to Beijing Subway Line 3, ready by 2021), and head northeast to Chengde, Shenyang, then Harbin. Only the Beijing Xinghuo — Chengde South part of the station is still in the works — the Chengde South to Shenyang and the onward bit to Harbin bits are already open.)

You’re seeing a bit of the new stations already. This here is Pingquan North Railway Station, which was designed to be very spacious. Worry not that it has only two platforms: Platform 1 gets access from the gates right out from the main Departures level, whilst Platform 2 gets access right out from the skybridge on the upper level. The entrances and exits are separated as well. And it can provide seating to close to a thousand customers at the same time.

Most of us are worrying if this is too big already. I personally can vouch that the station itself is of the right size. That’s after hearing a load of whining from station crew saying that their station is too miniscule. (Some stations on a few HSR lines, including Taiyuan-Xi’an via Dali, Shaanxi, have really, really minuscule waiting halls.)

Running on these rails will be both Harmony Express CRH380BG and Revival Express CR400BF-G trains, all of which have been designed to run in the -40°C Deep Chill. That’s one thing Northeast China doesn’t seem to tell you; never mind it’s cool in summer, in deep winter, it freezes you to death.

The ultimate trip, then, is to do Beijing-Harbin and make an onward connection to Qiqihar South, one of the most northernly points of the network. Good luck — and bundle up tight!…