I harbor profound feelings for China's railway construction, since I have myself participated in building foreign railways," stated Xing Xiangyang, project manager of the Angola Office of China Railway International Group, a subsidiary of China Railway Group Limited (CREC). "When the People's Republic of China was first established in 1949, the total mileage of China's rails was a paltry 10,000 kilometers, while the average train speed was a mere 60km/h. Others had already phased out the technologies we were using. Nowadays, however, after several rounds of large-scale construction and acceleration of speed, our mileage currently tops 100,000 kilometers, even as speeds have risen to 350km/h. Furthermore, our light rail and high-speed rail technologies are becoming ever more sophisticated. We now lead the world in railway technologies."

Since the completion of the 1,861-kilometer-long Tanzam Railway in the 1970s, the CREC and China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC) have constructed a deluge of railroads in Asia, Africa and South America. The Angolan railway project – upon which Xing Xiangyang works – is but one.

Railways Linking China and Africa

After his 2002 college graduation Xing Xiangyang became an assistant engineer at Transtech Engineering Corporation of CREC. Upon concluding a brief domestic internship, he transferred to the branch company in Angola, a country that had just ended a 27-year-long civil war. Virtually everything there needed re-doing.

"Angola had built three trunk railways with the help of the Portuguese in the 1950s (during the Portuguese colonial era), to wit, the Luanda Railway, Benguela Railway and Moçâmedes Railway," Xing recalled. "These low-speed narrow-gauge railways were essentially the same as 1950s railways in China, but the railway system was completely defunct after the devastation of the long civil war. Not one single line operated normally throughout the entire land."

As a littoral nation, Angola is endowed with world famous ports, such as Luanda and Lobito. Xing described how goods and materials had needed transport from these ports to elsewhere after Angola's economy began its sluggish recovery. Railway renovation and construction thus became the government's unequivocal first priority. In August 2002, the Chinese government inked the framework credit agreement with its Angolan counterpart. China's first loan funds were spent on renovating railroads. "I worked for the Luanda Railway renovation project, the first of its kind in the wake of the civil war. It was also the first railway project undertaken within the aegis of the cooperation agreement between our two governments. It was moreover the first Angolan railway built to Chinese standards. In February 2009, the Bungo-Baia section of the railway came into service." Xing still remembered those days with great clarity. "Residents along the line were so happy that they sang and danced in rapture. Some even ran alongside the track for several miles." Xing told of how both the residents and local governments afforded them abundant assistance and many facilities in the course of construction.

Thus far, all renovation projects for the three trunk railways in Angola have been undertaken by Chinese companies. Local governments and residents laud the quality and speed it delivers. The Luanda-Malanje Railway opened to traffic in 2009, and the Benguela Railway and Moçâmedes Railway projects both wrapped up in 2013. A great easing of pressure on passenger and freight transport has been the result. "People are willing to travel by train because of cheap tickets. Transport of goods from the ports is now by train rather than truck, since costs and delivery times have both dropped dramatically," Xing said.

Railway Building Overseas

According to Xing Xiangyang, since the founding of the PRC in 1949, almost every railway in China has been built either by CREC or CRCC. "China Railway First Group, Second Group, and Third Group to 10th Group all belong to CREC, while the 11th Group to 20th Group are all under CRCC's umbrella." Transtech Engineering Corporation, which Xing joined after graduation, had formerly been the international division of China Railway Second Group. In 1979, in order to serve the needs of the overseas market, the international division morphed into Transtech Engineering Corp., a branch project company specialized in the international market. In 2008, to help Chinese railways go global, CREC founded China Railway International Group to explore the foreign market, Transtech Engineering Corporation being subsumed into this group. Thus did Xing become a staffer with the Angola Office of China Railway International Group.

The group has offices and project departments in more than 60 countries and regions globally, with projects appearing in West Africa, Southern Africa, and Eastern Europe. It has logged a considerable number of projects, including the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, Addis Ababa Light Railway, Nigerian Railway, Ankara-Istanbul High-speed Railway and the Northern Plain Railway in Venezuela. The year 2014 saw CREC reap RMB 27 billion (about US $4.2 billion) in operating revenue from its overseas business.

As of the close of 2015, China's high-speed railway mileage had clocked up 19,000 kilometers, while China's high-speed railway also geared up its international exploration. Xing stated that CREC is currently undertaking light rail projects in Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia. High-speed rail lines linking China and Thailand and China and Laos are also under negotiation.

Overseas Sacrifice

"I often bemoaned my lot when I first landed in Angola. After three years' work, however, my mentality changed quite a bit," said Xing. "When I experienced the warmth and alacrity with which locals accepted and used the railroads, I felt so proud. All our hard work had truly paid off." Xing told us that if he had worked in China instead, he would now be a very ordinary engineer in railway construction, and each project would simply be another task. In Angola, he has witnessed the satisfaction and joyful smiles of the many who have seen a long-cherished dream come true. This suffuses him with an even greater sense of accomplishment.

The spirit of China's Railway has also been a prop sustaining him throughout all the hardship over the last decade. Xing explained: "Among us, there is the 'first old-generation', the 'second old-generation', and the 'third old-generation.' The first refers to the pioneers of China's railway construction. The second and third consist mostly of engineers and workers who mainly worked during the 1970s and 1980s, and include the experts who helped build the Tanzam Railway. These three generations bear testament to the grand transformation of China's railroads from obsoleteness to advancement. They share deep feelings for this cause and great devotion to their work. I worked with some of these old gaffers in Angola, and they instilled a very deep impression: a manifestation of selfless sacrifice and respectful devotion. Under the gradual influence of their ilk, we began to feel right at home."

"Once I brought a railway official from Angola to experience the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway. The realization that the train was traveling as fast as 300 k/ph astounded him. In the past, Africans equated the 'Made in China' label with low quality. Now, however, Chinese railways are recognized wherever we go, and this fills us with immense pride," Xing Xiangyang said.

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