The 2022 Winter Olympics might seem like a long way off, but that has not stopped China from rolling out nothing less than a fully-automated, high-speed train service to a key venue for the Olympics, one that will happily make a stop at the Great Wall of China, hopefully by year end.
Going to the Great Wall used to be such a drag, as if the powers that be demanded great personal sacrifice as the price to pay to see that for which the country is so famed, in addition to the exorbitant ticket prices at the most popular sites.
Lucky then that the travel part of the sacrifice, at least, shall receive this overdue makeover, in the form of a station on the new high-speed line right beneath the wall at world-famous scenic area, Badaling.
Ten tunnels and 64 bridges are among the engineering marvels that will help speed trains in just 50 minutes to the Winter Olympics venue at Zhangjiakou in northwestern Hebei Province.
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Of particular note are the Guangting Bridge and the Xinbadaling Tunnel. The former is the first steel-truss bridge in the world that can carry high-speed trains travelling at 350 km/h, while the latter cuts under the Great Wall at Badaling as the deepest and biggest high-speed underground railway station in the world. The 470 metre-long station goes to a depth of 102 metres underground has a designed service life of 100 years.
Trains on the new line need also content with high altitudes, extreme cold and winds not quite as fast as the trains themselves.
Being advertised as “fully autonomous”, and, “the smartest [line] in the country”, it is not yet clear as to the exact degree of automation on the new Beijing-Zhangjiakou service. Mo Zhisong, Chief Engineer responsible for train control systems at China State Railway Group, said at a recent press conference, “Different types of intelligent robot will be available at stations to assist passengers and handle luggage”. No word has emerged yet as to whether the train itself will be driverless.
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Authorities are pulling out the stops so that the ¥53.5-billion line be put into operation by the end of this year, making it 110 years since the inauguration of its predecessor, the Jinjiang railway that was the first railway in China built entirely by the Chinese.
The new train link will also come as a welcome alternative for a return to Beijing to the famed “Valley of Death” that comprises the spiraling downward curves of the G6 Badaling Highway.
Aside from its function as an Olympic venue, Zhangjiakou has also long held military significance, as a transportation hub that connects Beijing with northwest China and Mongolia.
