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T o C h i n a
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 China without Manchuria The Soviet Union conquered Manchuria in 1945. Control of the former South Manchuria Railway was transferred to a common administration under Chang Kai-ngau, a loyalist of Chiang Kai-shek, but the Soviets removed railway equipment and industry. Mao's troops occupied Manchuria in 1948 and in 1949 the People's Republic of China was proclaimed. On December 17, 1949 Mao arrived by a special train (not yet the German-built special) in Moscow and the result of this meeting with Stalin was the official return of Manchuria to China. In 1955 the last Soviet soldiers left the former Port Arthur by Chinese trains. Already on January 31, 1954 the first through express Beijing - Moscow, consisting of the new Russian sleepers built in East Germany, had left the Chinese capital. Traction in China was by Pacifics of the class SL6, also the streamlined SL8 ex-Pasi Ha and then the Pacific RM. On the new, shorter Transmongolian line the Chinese train Beijing - Moscow was inaugurated in 1959 - see chapter Transsiberian/ Moscow-Beijing. Passenger services on the new third line to China via Almaty (Alma Ata) in Kazakhstan and Urumqi in China were opened not before 1992 with the “Gengis Khan”, later listed as “Zhibek Zholy”, Almaty - Urumqi, with change of bogies at Druzhba. A fast night connection with sleeping-cars between Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, and Almaty was established in 2002. Turksib.com informed: “30.IX.2002: The first high-speed train left from the station of Astana for the southern capital Almaty… The train consists of the railroad cars built by the Spanish company Patentes Talgo…13.VI.2003: 22 new Talgo coaches for Kazakhstan were unloaded at Hamina, Finland… The new coaches will be used on daily Almaty - Shymkent and Almaty - Astana trains. 19.IX.2003: New high-speed ‘Tulpar’ train departed to Almaty from the newly rebuilt Astana main station. The train covers the distance between the new and the old capitals in just 13 hours and 44 minutes (it goes twice as fast as traditional trains).” Surprisingly, true Talgo train sets were reported. Passengers for China have to change trains at Almaty and at Urumqui. According to Railway Gazette Intl. a service Astana – Urumqi was opened in 2008. Expresses Urumqi - Beijing are hauled in the western region of China generally by a pair of various DF4 type diesels.
Standard steam locomotive classes of the People's Republic of China From Chinese production:
Steam locomotives from predecessors:
Information according to Clark and Pearce. Several AM classes of 4-4-0 types and TH classes of 4-6-0 engines disappeared before 1975. The SL17 disappeared before 1955, the SL18, 19, 20 before 1975 (according to Whitehouse). According to Florian Schmidt there were Pacifics numbered up to SL21. The fate of the Pacifics from Su-Tao, Kowloon-Canton and Kiang-Nan railways is unknown. 
Express Beijing - Harbin - Moscow, the only known picture with a streamlined Pacific SL 8, the ex-South Manchurian class Pasi Ha, hauling Soviet sleepers, departure at the new Beijing station, probably at the end of the '50s (official Chinese photograph)
According to the description a streamliner Beijing - Tianjin, history unknown, painted red/cream and steam-hauled (China Pictorial 1951)
Fex13 (?) Beijing - Shanghai with diesel class DF4, Beijing 1991 (Wolfram Veith)
Shanghai Express Under Japanese occupation, the line Beijing - Shanghai obviously was re-opened in 1941. After WWII in communist China, on the Southern section Nanjing - Shanghai appeared the beautiful KF1 Niagaras, designed by Chiang's Bureau of Standards under the British Colonel Kenneth Cantlie, built in 1936 by Vulcan Foundry in England. Around 1957 some luxurious sleeping compartments were advertised. New car production in China, as well as in the Soviet Union, was based on Eastern German designs. In 1966, Mao's "glorious rebels" interrupted the Shanghai Express and other services. In 1968 the Chinese completed the mighty Yangzi bridge, abandoned by the Soviets. During the 80's appeared air-conditioned standard cars on the Shanghai Express, red/cream colored instead of the usual green, and red DF4 diesels. And the 25kV electrification of the Chinese network had started. Around the turn of the century Harbin - Shenyang, Beijing - Lanzhou, Beijing - Hong Kong and many other lines already had been electrified. In 2002 the Shanghai Express was re-equipped with nice red cars and nice stewardesses. In 2005 among the 7 night trains Beijing - Shanghai, 5 ones exclusively had "soft" sleepers, air conditioned, and generally the expresses sported a new white/blue livery. At Shanghai the expresses for Beijing still started with DF11 diesels. Hong Kong After WWII Hong Kong continued to be a British colony. Traffic to Guangzhou (Canton) was resumed, but with Mao’s victory the through trains disappeared except some special cars for V.I.P.’s, according to an information by the Kowloon-Canton Railway. Ordinary passengers had to walk over the border bridge at Lo Wu. Around 1955 the Kowloon - Canton Railway got new dark-green cars from Cravens, England. In 1979 (April 4) Chinese trains started between Guangzhou and Kowloon (Jiu Long), where four years before the new station Hung Hom had replaced the old terminus at the “Star Ferry” quay. The trains consisted of “soft” day coaches and they were hauled by DF3 diesels, then ND2 from Romania and DF4. After in 1997 Hong Kong became a part of China and expresses Beijing - Kowloon and Shanghai - Kowloon were introduced, white/blue trains arrived at Hong Kong with DF11 diesels.
Passenger train Beijing - Lhasa with NJ2 class engines in 2006 (official photo)
Hainan That strategic island in the south was linked with the harbour Haikou on the mainland in 2003 by a modern train ferry service. During decades almost nothing was known about Hainan, but then Cook’s Overland Timetable confirmed a direct train service between Beijing and Sanya on Hainan island. Lhasa From July 2006 the express T27 connects Beijing with Lhasa in Tibet. The inaugural train was hauled by the three modern turquoise/pastel colored CoCo de General Electric diesel locomotives NJ2 of a new type, like the air conditioned cars from Bombardier built for that highest railway of the world over the Tangula Pass with 5072 m altitude. The regular express with the green cars covers the 4000 km Beijing - Lhasa within 48 hours, much faster than the European long-distance trains of bygone days. The new section Golmud - Lhasa with a length of 1142 km had cost 4.1 billion dollar. The ticket price for 1st class sleeping-car (one-way) is 1262 yuan (c.145 euro), for a lower class seat c.40 euro. For 2008 a tourist special became announced by the press, with 4 suites per car probably the most comfortable train of the world. Newsweek (July 17, 2006) reported that the British entrepreneur Ivor Warburton "is envisioning a deal with the Chinese government to introduce $1000-a-day luxury-class service on the newly opened line between Qinghai's capital, Golmud, and the legendary Tibetan city of Lhasa". That railway was Mao's dream, considered primarily a strategic project. Revolts in Tibet in 2008 did not stop the regular train services from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities to Lhasa. T28 Lhasa - Beijing Xi, August 7, 2006 (according to Railway Journal, Japan, no.482): 3 NJ2 diesel-electric Lhasa - Lanzhou 1 SS7E electric engine Lanzhou - Beijing 1 KD25T van Lhasa - Beijing 4 YW25T "hard" 4-berth Lhasa - Beijing 4 YZ25T open saloon chair cars Lhasa - Beijing 1 CA25T restaurant Lhasa - Beijing 2 RW25T "soft" 4-berth Lhasa - Beijing 4 YW25T "hard" 4-berth Lhasa - Beijing Train K917 Lanzhou - Lhasa was reported with traction by two older diesels DF4D Lanzhou - Geermu (Golmud) and three DF8B Geermu - Lhasa. High-speed In 2002 the German maglev airport link at Shanghai between Long Yang Road and Pudong International Airport was completed. The 5-car sets started running regularly and successfully at speeds up to 430 km/h - and some German press had combated it in vain. With the end of prime minister Zhu Rongji's term in 2003, the next project Shanghai - Nanjing however became uncertain. In 2004 the Chinese government decided for conventional Japanese Shinkansen technology at a cost of 12 billion dollar for 2000 km high-speed lines between Beijing and Shenyang, Qingdao and Jinan, obviously cheaper than the German competitor ICE3 with equivalent technology. Chinese nationalists however were opposed and in 2005 China ordered 60 ICE3 type trains in the upgraded "Velaro" version from Siemens, 30 of them to be built in China. These CRH3 trains were presented in 2008 for high-speed services Beijing – Tianjin.. In Japan the E2-1000 was ordered, a ten-car derivative of the JR East E2 type. Alstom proposed an 8-car unit with a maximum speed of 350 km/h for Beijing - Shanghai services with distributed power, based on the AGV development. And China developed its own "China Star" for Beijing - Shenyang services with a top speed of 300 km/h. The semi-high speed sector had been pioneered with the "Lanjian" services Guangzhou - Hong Kong, using Swedish-built X-2000 type electric units. A new CA250 from Alstom is a pendolino derivative with Giugiaro styling. For the German maglev technology, faster than everything on rails, a high cost of 40 billion dollar for 2000 km had been expected. Nevertheless an extension of the existing Shanghai airport line to Hangzhou (distance c.200 km) became envisioned. For Beijing - Shanghai over 1300 km, maglev trains could compete with airlines more successfully than the expected standard high-speed line.
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