China’s railway transportation volume accounted for a quarter of the world’s total last year. This according to the Ministry of Railways.

Wang Yongping, from the Ministry, said China was ahead of all other countries in passenger and cargo traffic by railway last year. There were 662.2 billion person-kilometers (an unusual measurement but a useful one) and freight at 2.87 billion ton-kilometers.

The general railway turnover came to 2.86 trillion ton-kilometers, 130 billion ton-kilometers more than that of the United States and one and a half times that of Russia. All of this despite the fact China has only 76,600 kilometers of railways in operation. It makes the density of its railway transportation the largest in the world.

Wang Yongping said, ‘Although China’s railways have the highest efficiency of transport, they still lag far behind the nation’s economic and social development.’

The illustration is from the ‘London Evening News’ of 1876, showing the first train in China in Shanghai.