Fast-track trip

The newly planned high-speed rail will cut the time to two days.[Photo by Hong Yu / For China Daily]

The rail's benefits to cooperation will be long term, Zhang writes in the China's Tourism Development: Analysis and Forecast (2014-15), the Tourism Research Center's annual green paper.

The report points out that the Beijing-Moscow high-speed rail and other forthcoming transport projects, such as a circuit railroad across South Korea, Russia and Mongolia, promise to enhance tourism. Other proposals include a northeastern-Asia rail, road and sea transport passage, and land transport connecting China with western and southern Asia.

Money will be the Beijing-Moscow rail's biggest hurdle, Chinese Academy of Engineering academician Wang Mengshu says.

Wang says the construction costs are astronomical, adding that it will take five years to complete the rail once the investment is lined up.

China typically provides investment, technology and equipment to build transnational high-speed railways and assists post-construction operations, Wang says.

It participated in building Turkey's Ankara-Istanbul high-speed rail, which went into service in July.

It signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia in October and will bid on the Moscow-Kazan rail.

China also signed a $12 billion coastal rail project with Nigeria's transportation authority in November. And it has announced intentions or signed memorandums with the United Kingdom, India, Laos, Thailand, the United States and Brazil.

China's high-speed rail development has transformed domestic tourism. Travel time between Beijing and Shanghai has been cut by five hours. It now takes only nine hours to travel from Beijing to Guangzhou.

This facilitates previously impossible weekend trips, Jiang says.