Beginning in 1895, the government began to grant rail concessions to foreigners, and permitted direct connection to the capital Beijing.

[20] After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the new government under Mao Zedong invested heavily in the railway network.

[25] To meet growing demand for rail service, the state is making large investments in rolling stock and infrastructure.

In the past decade, China has been building an extensive high-speed rail grid that is overlaid onto the existing railway network.

Several sections of the national grid, especially along the southeast coastal corridor, were built to link cities that had no previous rail connections.

This ambitious national grid project was planned to be built by 2020, but the government's stimulus has expedited time-tables considerably for many of the lines.

In recent years, advances in bridge-building and tunneling techniques have enabled Chinese railroad builders to reduce overall track length and increase train speeds on rail lines through rugged terrain.

[61] High-speed rail lines are often built on elevated tracks to reduce the need to acquire land and involve very long bridges.

These trains run on upgraded conventional lines as well as passenger dedicated high-speed track that can permit speeds of up to 350 kilometres per hour (220 mph).

Demand for tickets increases dramatically during the Chinese New Year and the two Golden Week holiday in early May and October, as many migrant workers and students return home and travelers go on vacation.

[25] The four largest rail ports of entry, Manzhouli, Suifenhe, Erenhot, Alashankou and accounted 56 million tonnes or 96.5% of the total.

[79]: 63  CEFT continued to effectively move freight into Europe during the disruption of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine by developing alternative routes via Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey.

[79]: 120 The People's Liberation Army (PLA) uses the railway system to transport personnel, supplies, conventional and strategic arms.

[79]: 62  Use of BRI-related rail surged after the COVID-19 pandemic, which had congested air freight and sea shipping, and hampered port access.

Ji'an, upstream on the Yalu in Jilin and 400 km (250 mi) by rail from Siping, connects to Manpo in Chagang Province.

It borders Zabaykalsk in Zabaykalsky Krai of Russia's Transbaikal region and handles the bulk of the bilateral freight trade and one of the Beijing-Moscow passenger train routes.

[87] A third rail connection is located further south at Hunchun in eastern Jilin bordering Kraskino, near the southwest tip of Primorsky Krai.

The station on the Russian side, called Makhalino, is located on the Ussuriysk-Khasan-North Korean border line, about 41 km (25 mi) from Khasan.

3/4 trains, take a shorter route of 7,622 kilometres (4,736 mi), through Mongolia via the Trans-Mongolian Railway and has the two-berth deluxe soft sleeper cars.

As with rail service to Russia, trains from China need to change bogies in Erenhot, since Mongolia uses broad gauge.

[100][needs update] Additionally, the city of Guangzhou, Zhongshan, and Zhuhai have proposed the construction of a new "Guangzhou-Zhongshan-Zhuhai-Macau Intercity Railways" which could further connectivity on the west bank of Pearl River Delta.

[101] In November 2008, the transport ministries of Russia and the China signed an agreement to build one more link between the railway systems of the two countries.

[110][111] One line would run 240 kilometres (150 mi) from the Tavan Tolgoi coalfields of Ömnögovi Province to the border at Gashuun Suukhait and cross into China at Ganqimaodu in Urad Middle Banner, part of Inner Mongolia's Bayan Nur Municipality.

[112] In March 2013, the China Road and Bridge Corp., an engineering firm, submitted a feasibility study to the Kyrgyz government, which found the project to be too expensive.

[112] In December 2013, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev expressed his preference for an alternative line that would connect the northern and southern halves of the country.

[114] On 12 May 2014, China's paramount leader, Xi Jinping, and Turkmenistan's president, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, signed a declaration to study the possibility of inviting Chinese companies to build a cross-border railway linking the two countries.

[115] On 22 May 2014, the Foreign Minister of Kyrgyzstan reportedly suggested inviting China to join in another regional railway project linking Russia, Central Asian states and the Persian Gulf.

Since 2007, Chinese and Pakistani authorities have explored the possibility of building the Khunjerab Railway, which would cross the Karakorum Mountains and connect Kashgar with Havelian in the Abbottabad District of northern Pakistan.

The G/403/405 Beijing West – Kunming South train (2760 km, 10 3/4 hours), became the longest high-speed rail service in the world.

The world's longest freight rail service runs from Yiwu, Zhejiang in eastern China to Madrid, Spain, a journey of 13,000 km (8,100 mi) over three weeks.