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Nan Baojun， 43， a veteran railway steward with 20 years’ experience， was excited when she spoke to Beijing Review on a test high-speed train running from Urumqi to Shanshan in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. “Xinjiang finally has its high-speed railway，” she exclaimed with glee.
At 9：50 a.m. on June 3， a CRH2-061C highspeed train began its 283-km journey from Urumqi to Shanshan to test the Xinjiang section of the second double-track line of the LanzhouXinjiang Railway.
The railway， which was first built in 1952-62， is the only one that connects Xinjiang with other parts of China. The new line starts in Lanzhou， capital of Gansu Province， and takes a slightly different route， winding through the neighboring Qinghai Province before re-entering Gansu and joining the old route that heads northwest toward Xinjiang.
The 1，776-km new line crosses a vast expanse of the Gobi Desert and other areas with harsh natural conditions including extreme temperatures and wind speeds， both of which needed technical innovations to overcome.
Construction of the Xinjiang stretch of the railroad， which runs for 710 km in total， began in March 2010. After the last section between Gansu and Qinghai finishes its test running in September， the new line will start trial operation. It will be finally put into use at the end of 2014. With the new railway， travel time between Lanzhou and Urumqi will be cut from the current 21 hours to 8 hours or less.
Xinjiang’s local residents have longed for the opening of the high-speed railway for a long time.
“When I took a taxi to go to work， the driver asked me when Xinjiang would have its own high-speed railway，” said Nan， who will be in charge of all the attendants on the route after it is put into use. “When I went to get a haircut， the hairdresser also asked me if it was true that Xinjiang was building a high-speed railroad.”
The trial run on June 3 included tests on dynamic response， rails， communications and aerodynamics， and all the results were within safety limits， said Fu Lianzhu， chief engineer of the line’s trial run project.
This section is designed for an average speed of 250 km per hour when it begins operations. During the test， the speed used was 10 percent faster， 275 km per hour， to make extra sure that everything is operating as expected.
“We had to undertake nine days of testing before we started the trial run，” Fu said. According to Fu， the train began its trial run at a speed of 160 km per hour， regularly increasing its speed by 20-km increments. After the speed exceeded 200 km per hour， the increases were lowered 10 km per hour until it reached 275 km per hour.
“On account of the high speeds， we drivers have to take turns [to get a chance to experience it]，” said Adi Tuerdi， 34， an Uygur train driver. Besides Tuerdi， there is also one Kazak and 10 Han ethnic drivers on the trial highspeed train. They were all selected from train drivers working in Xinjiang.
Tuerdi experienced tough tests as a candidate over the past several months. The basic criterion is that a driver has healthy physical and mental condition and good knowledge of China’s railways. When he passed his interview in Beijing， Tuerdi was given the opportunity to learn the theoretical knowledge needed for high-speed trains and receive practical training.
Tuerdi received his driving classes in Baoji， northwest China’s Shaanxi Province， and Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu， Sichuan Province， some 3，000 km far away from Urumqi.
He practiced his skills at the Wuhan multiple unit train depot in central China’s Hubei Province， one of the four major depots in China. The other three are in Beijing， Shanghai and Guangzhou in south China’s Guangdong Province.
However， the highest priority is a train driver’s recorded safe-driving distance. They cannot have violations within at least 100，000 km of one another. Tuerdi’s safe-driving distance is 573，400 km， which he has worked up since his career as a train driver started in 2003.
“I’m proud to be the first Uygur driver of the high-speed trains in Xinjiang. It’s also a pride for my family， and even for all Uygurs，” Tuerdi said.
Not that far
When Tuerdi worked for the UrumqiHami section of the old route of the Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway， it took more than six hours to travel the roughly 600 km of the route.
But when the high-speed railway goes into operation， it will be possible to traverse it in as little as two and a half hours. “It’d be possible to make a day trip to and from Urumqi to Hami， a city in south Xinjiang，” Tuerdi said.
For people in Xinjiang， online shopping is not as convenient as it is in the rest of China because of the long wait for packages and higher delivery fees.
For those using SunFeng Express， a premium delivery company in China known for its efficiency， delivering a package from Beijing to Urumqi takes a week at least and costs 24 yuan（$3.84） per km. However， customers in other provinces， with the exception of those in southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region and in Qinghai， their purchases can arrive in two days and the delivery fees can be so low that some online vendors are even willing to cover them for their customers. What’s worse， some online business owners rejected orders from Xinjiang to avoid the hassles of the inconvenient transportation arrangements. “When we were trained in Wuhan， enjoying shopping without delivery costs was so exciting，” Nan said. She looks forward to high-speed cargo trains that can improve the situation.
The high-speed railway will make a huge difference. The old route of the Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway will be used exclusively for cargo trains while the high-speed railroad will be for passenger trains， according to Liu Xinle， a railway official in Xinjiang.
“It means that the current transportation capability for both cargo and passengers will be doubled，” Liu said.
Challenges conquered
Xinjiang is the largest base of wind power in China. The windiness of the region was a major factor in the decision to build so many wind farms there， but sometimes the wind is responsible for more than just generating electricity and can cause serious damage and be a potential threat to trains.
The high-speed railway passes four particularly notorious windy areas， where gusts of wind can reach 60 meters per second， equivalent to the wind speed in a category 4 hurricane. Wind exceeding 32 meters per second are considered hurricanes.
In the four areas with extreme wind that the railway passes， there are 208 days a year where winds exceed 20 meters per second.
A 462-km wind shield has been built to prevent damage， covering 65 percent of the total length of the Xinjiang section of the high-speed railroad， the largest wind protection structure in China’s high-speed railway construction， according to La Youyu， Chairman of Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway Xinjiang Co.
“Constructing a high-speed railroad in such a harsh natural environment is a real challenge，”said La， a Tibetan with a rich experience in railway construction. He participated in building the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway and the Qinghai-Tibet railway， the world’s highest and longest high plateau railroad， as vice commander in chief.
“Without the protection wall， trains would have to stop running when wind speeds reach 30 meters per second. But now， they don’t have to do that till it exceeds 40 meters per second，” La said.
Xinjiang is also renowned for the large temperature differences between day and night， which can cause concrete to crack. “We worked hard to choose the best formula for the concrete possible，” La explained.
The high-speed railway’s environmentally friendly construction is another highlight， especially near the Dabancheng wetland， a national nature reserve in Urumqi. During the construction， clear rules forbidding littering and random driving were made. Workers built a road exclusively for construction use. After the construction work was finished， the road is used for followup railway maintenance and given to the local people for their daily use.
Economic solution
Xinjiang is a remote region， and more than half of its population is made up of ethnic minorities who follow Islam. Violence in the name of “jihad”has been increasing since 2009 and represents the biggest threat to the region.
Chinese President Xi Jinping urged strengthened precautions and international anti-terrorism cooperation， stressing long-term stability as the main goal for the region at the second central work conference on Xinjiang on May 29.
The meeting was held in the wake of a series of bloody terrorist attacks in the region， including one at an open air market in Urumqi， which left 39 people dead and 94 injured on May 22. It was the second terrorist attack in Urumqi in less than a month. On April 30， an explosion at the Urumqi Railway Station killed three people， including the two attackers， and injured 79 others.
“Terrorism can’t break the unity of the Xinjiang people or stop the region’s development，” said Tuerdi. “We are very strong.”
Echoing Tuerdi’s sentiment， Zulhumar Tursun， 22， a Uygur attendant on the test train， is also confident in Xinjiang’s future. “Xinjiang is not what you heard in rumors，” she said.
Tursun is proud to be one of the first nine candidates chosen from about 5，000 women who all wanted to work for the first high-speed train in her hometown.
Affected by the terrorist attacks， direct investment in Xinjiang and tourism revenues reduced 50 percent and 40 percent respectively in May， comparing with the same period last year， according Lai Xin， a senior official with the region’s Development and Reform Commission.
But Li Wenqing， a local tourism official， pins his hopes on the high-speed railway to revive the industry.
“The high-speed railway will cut the costs and time needed to visit Xinjiang，” Li said.
Xinjiang received 52 million domestic tourists and 1.1 million foreign tourists in 2013. Li is still optimistic about reaching the target of receiving 57 million tourists this year.
“The tourism industry will become Xinjiang’s most important industry， accounting for 10 percent of its GDP by 2015，” Li said.
“With its beautiful natural scenery and cultural sites， we need a developed transportation net. If tourists can travel here within three days rather than seven days， that would be great”Nan said. “As with the high-speed railway in use， more people can come to know Xinjiang and Xinjiang locals can better know the outside world.”
The high-speed railway will also greatly improve Xinjiang’s transport capabilities to Central Asian and European countries and strengthen its role of being the transportation hub along the Silk Road Economic Belt， said Erkin Tuniyaz， Vice Chairman of the Xinjiang Regional Government.
In a speech in Kazakhstan last September， President Xi proposed the construction of a “Silk Road Economic Belt” as a way of boosting political and economic ties between China and neighboring countries， as well as accelerating the development of China’s western regions.
At 9：50 a.m. on June 3， a CRH2-061C highspeed train began its 283-km journey from Urumqi to Shanshan to test the Xinjiang section of the second double-track line of the LanzhouXinjiang Railway.
The railway， which was first built in 1952-62， is the only one that connects Xinjiang with other parts of China. The new line starts in Lanzhou， capital of Gansu Province， and takes a slightly different route， winding through the neighboring Qinghai Province before re-entering Gansu and joining the old route that heads northwest toward Xinjiang.
The 1，776-km new line crosses a vast expanse of the Gobi Desert and other areas with harsh natural conditions including extreme temperatures and wind speeds， both of which needed technical innovations to overcome.
Construction of the Xinjiang stretch of the railroad， which runs for 710 km in total， began in March 2010. After the last section between Gansu and Qinghai finishes its test running in September， the new line will start trial operation. It will be finally put into use at the end of 2014. With the new railway， travel time between Lanzhou and Urumqi will be cut from the current 21 hours to 8 hours or less.
Xinjiang’s local residents have longed for the opening of the high-speed railway for a long time.
“When I took a taxi to go to work， the driver asked me when Xinjiang would have its own high-speed railway，” said Nan， who will be in charge of all the attendants on the route after it is put into use. “When I went to get a haircut， the hairdresser also asked me if it was true that Xinjiang was building a high-speed railroad.”
The trial run on June 3 included tests on dynamic response， rails， communications and aerodynamics， and all the results were within safety limits， said Fu Lianzhu， chief engineer of the line’s trial run project.
This section is designed for an average speed of 250 km per hour when it begins operations. During the test， the speed used was 10 percent faster， 275 km per hour， to make extra sure that everything is operating as expected.
“We had to undertake nine days of testing before we started the trial run，” Fu said. According to Fu， the train began its trial run at a speed of 160 km per hour， regularly increasing its speed by 20-km increments. After the speed exceeded 200 km per hour， the increases were lowered 10 km per hour until it reached 275 km per hour.
“On account of the high speeds， we drivers have to take turns [to get a chance to experience it]，” said Adi Tuerdi， 34， an Uygur train driver. Besides Tuerdi， there is also one Kazak and 10 Han ethnic drivers on the trial highspeed train. They were all selected from train drivers working in Xinjiang.
Tuerdi experienced tough tests as a candidate over the past several months. The basic criterion is that a driver has healthy physical and mental condition and good knowledge of China’s railways. When he passed his interview in Beijing， Tuerdi was given the opportunity to learn the theoretical knowledge needed for high-speed trains and receive practical training.
Tuerdi received his driving classes in Baoji， northwest China’s Shaanxi Province， and Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu， Sichuan Province， some 3，000 km far away from Urumqi.
He practiced his skills at the Wuhan multiple unit train depot in central China’s Hubei Province， one of the four major depots in China. The other three are in Beijing， Shanghai and Guangzhou in south China’s Guangdong Province.
However， the highest priority is a train driver’s recorded safe-driving distance. They cannot have violations within at least 100，000 km of one another. Tuerdi’s safe-driving distance is 573，400 km， which he has worked up since his career as a train driver started in 2003.
“I’m proud to be the first Uygur driver of the high-speed trains in Xinjiang. It’s also a pride for my family， and even for all Uygurs，” Tuerdi said.
Not that far
When Tuerdi worked for the UrumqiHami section of the old route of the Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway， it took more than six hours to travel the roughly 600 km of the route.
But when the high-speed railway goes into operation， it will be possible to traverse it in as little as two and a half hours. “It’d be possible to make a day trip to and from Urumqi to Hami， a city in south Xinjiang，” Tuerdi said.
For people in Xinjiang， online shopping is not as convenient as it is in the rest of China because of the long wait for packages and higher delivery fees.
For those using SunFeng Express， a premium delivery company in China known for its efficiency， delivering a package from Beijing to Urumqi takes a week at least and costs 24 yuan（$3.84） per km. However， customers in other provinces， with the exception of those in southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region and in Qinghai， their purchases can arrive in two days and the delivery fees can be so low that some online vendors are even willing to cover them for their customers. What’s worse， some online business owners rejected orders from Xinjiang to avoid the hassles of the inconvenient transportation arrangements. “When we were trained in Wuhan， enjoying shopping without delivery costs was so exciting，” Nan said. She looks forward to high-speed cargo trains that can improve the situation.
The high-speed railway will make a huge difference. The old route of the Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway will be used exclusively for cargo trains while the high-speed railroad will be for passenger trains， according to Liu Xinle， a railway official in Xinjiang.
“It means that the current transportation capability for both cargo and passengers will be doubled，” Liu said.
Challenges conquered
Xinjiang is the largest base of wind power in China. The windiness of the region was a major factor in the decision to build so many wind farms there， but sometimes the wind is responsible for more than just generating electricity and can cause serious damage and be a potential threat to trains.
The high-speed railway passes four particularly notorious windy areas， where gusts of wind can reach 60 meters per second， equivalent to the wind speed in a category 4 hurricane. Wind exceeding 32 meters per second are considered hurricanes.
In the four areas with extreme wind that the railway passes， there are 208 days a year where winds exceed 20 meters per second.
A 462-km wind shield has been built to prevent damage， covering 65 percent of the total length of the Xinjiang section of the high-speed railroad， the largest wind protection structure in China’s high-speed railway construction， according to La Youyu， Chairman of Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway Xinjiang Co.
“Constructing a high-speed railroad in such a harsh natural environment is a real challenge，”said La， a Tibetan with a rich experience in railway construction. He participated in building the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway and the Qinghai-Tibet railway， the world’s highest and longest high plateau railroad， as vice commander in chief.
“Without the protection wall， trains would have to stop running when wind speeds reach 30 meters per second. But now， they don’t have to do that till it exceeds 40 meters per second，” La said.
Xinjiang is also renowned for the large temperature differences between day and night， which can cause concrete to crack. “We worked hard to choose the best formula for the concrete possible，” La explained.
The high-speed railway’s environmentally friendly construction is another highlight， especially near the Dabancheng wetland， a national nature reserve in Urumqi. During the construction， clear rules forbidding littering and random driving were made. Workers built a road exclusively for construction use. After the construction work was finished， the road is used for followup railway maintenance and given to the local people for their daily use.
Economic solution
Xinjiang is a remote region， and more than half of its population is made up of ethnic minorities who follow Islam. Violence in the name of “jihad”has been increasing since 2009 and represents the biggest threat to the region.
Chinese President Xi Jinping urged strengthened precautions and international anti-terrorism cooperation， stressing long-term stability as the main goal for the region at the second central work conference on Xinjiang on May 29.
The meeting was held in the wake of a series of bloody terrorist attacks in the region， including one at an open air market in Urumqi， which left 39 people dead and 94 injured on May 22. It was the second terrorist attack in Urumqi in less than a month. On April 30， an explosion at the Urumqi Railway Station killed three people， including the two attackers， and injured 79 others.
“Terrorism can’t break the unity of the Xinjiang people or stop the region’s development，” said Tuerdi. “We are very strong.”
Echoing Tuerdi’s sentiment， Zulhumar Tursun， 22， a Uygur attendant on the test train， is also confident in Xinjiang’s future. “Xinjiang is not what you heard in rumors，” she said.
Tursun is proud to be one of the first nine candidates chosen from about 5，000 women who all wanted to work for the first high-speed train in her hometown.
Affected by the terrorist attacks， direct investment in Xinjiang and tourism revenues reduced 50 percent and 40 percent respectively in May， comparing with the same period last year， according Lai Xin， a senior official with the region’s Development and Reform Commission.
But Li Wenqing， a local tourism official， pins his hopes on the high-speed railway to revive the industry.
“The high-speed railway will cut the costs and time needed to visit Xinjiang，” Li said.
Xinjiang received 52 million domestic tourists and 1.1 million foreign tourists in 2013. Li is still optimistic about reaching the target of receiving 57 million tourists this year.
“The tourism industry will become Xinjiang’s most important industry， accounting for 10 percent of its GDP by 2015，” Li said.
“With its beautiful natural scenery and cultural sites， we need a developed transportation net. If tourists can travel here within three days rather than seven days， that would be great”Nan said. “As with the high-speed railway in use， more people can come to know Xinjiang and Xinjiang locals can better know the outside world.”
The high-speed railway will also greatly improve Xinjiang’s transport capabilities to Central Asian and European countries and strengthen its role of being the transportation hub along the Silk Road Economic Belt， said Erkin Tuniyaz， Vice Chairman of the Xinjiang Regional Government.
In a speech in Kazakhstan last September， President Xi proposed the construction of a “Silk Road Economic Belt” as a way of boosting political and economic ties between China and neighboring countries， as well as accelerating the development of China’s western regions.