World leading technology

Experts say China's HS technology is both comprehensive and mature. Although the current technology does not apply to all conditions, China has laid long, seamless rails for HS trains on a great variety of terrain -- on or above lowland plains and atop plateaus, above and under water, and inside tunnels deep in mountains.

HS trains running on the 1,068-km Wuhan-Guangzhou railway pass each other safely at a speed of 350 km/h in the tunnel. And the high-speed movement has little affect upon the surface of water contained in a cup sitting on the small table of a train carriage.

The maximum speed of the CRH3 train is 394.2 km/h and it normally runs at 350 km/h. Both figures were obtained from test runs of trains in actual use, instead of vehicles specially built for experimental purposes, as some countries did. "China's HS trains are safe and comfortable," said He Huawu, MOR chief engineer.

The advancement of China's HS technology was marvelous and indisputable, Chen Juemin said, "It's an advantage of the late-comer. We are late, but we achieve big."

The Chinese technology combined original independent innovation and innovation in partnership with other countries or through technological transfers. MOR statistics show that between 2003 and 2009 China's railway sector submitted 946 items for patent protection. The Chinese government has been very careful about the issue of intellectual property rights in the rail sector. "So far, there is no dispute on that," Chen Juemin said.