1.
Jianyang, Sichuan
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Jianyang is a county-level city located in the Sichuan basin in Sichuan Province, in south central China. Situated only 48 kilometers south east of the city center of Chengdu, the urban center is located on the banks of the Tuo River. Jianyang has a history dating back over two thousand years. It was part of the state of Shu until the third century BC, in the early Yuan dynasty, it was named Jianzhou. It adopted the name Jianyang County after 1913 during the Republic of China, after the foundation of the Peoples Republic of China, it was incorporated into the Neijiang Administration Zone. It was divided into communes during the Cultural Revolution, when the communes were abolished, it was re-organized under Chengdu. In 1994, the county was converted into a county-level city, in 2007, the county was given broad autonomy over its budgeting and financial affairs by the State Council as part of a wider experiment. In 2016, the State Council transferred jurisdiction of Jianyang from Ziyang to Chengdu, administratively, Jianyang is subdivided into four subdistricts,25 towns,29 townships, and over 800 villages or equivalents. In practice many villages are basically urban areas with residential properties built after 2000. As of 2012, there are just over 1.48 million residents estimated to be living in Jianyang, of these, the vast majority are rural residents. The natural population growth rate without taking into account net migration figures is 1. 19% as of 2012, over 99% of the population is of Han Chinese ethnicity. There are small Yi, Tujia, and Tibetan populations, each numbering no more than a few hundred, development of local transport advanced rapidly between 1990 and 2010. Jianyang Railway Station serves the city, Jianyang South Railway Station is a high-speed rail station on the Chengdu–Chongqing Intercity Railway. As of 2016, the Chengdu Tianfu International Airport, intended to be a new hub servicing southwestern China, is under construction in the Jianyang area, the local economy is mainly dependent on agriculture and the production of machinery. There are factories in the region producing metal tools, tractors, ruonan Foods headquarters is located in Jianyang. As of 2013 recorded a GDP of 34.48 billion yuan, the Sichuan Provincial Womens Prison is located in the town of Yangma, in Jianyang city limits
2.
High-speed rail
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High-speed rail is a type of rail transport that operates significantly faster than traditional rail traffic, using an integrated system of specialized rolling stock and dedicated tracks. The first such system began operations in Japan in 1964 and was known as the bullet train. High-speed trains normally operate on standard gauge tracks of continuously welded rail on grade-separated right-of-way that incorporates a large turning radius in its design, only in Europe does HSR cross international borders. China has 22,000 kilometres of HSR as of end December 2016, while high-speed rail is most often designed for passenger travel, some high-speed systems also offer freight service. Multiple definitions for high-speed rail are in use worldwide, the European Union Directive 96/48/EC, Annex 1 defines high-speed rail in terms of, Infrastructure, track built specially for high-speed travel or specially upgraded for high-speed travel. Minimum Speed Limit, Minimum speed of 250 km/h on lines built for high speed. This must apply to at least one section of the line, Rolling stock must be able to reach a speed of at least 200 km/h to be considered high speed. Operating conditions, Rolling stock must be designed alongside its infrastructure for complete compatibility, safety and quality of service, category II – Existing tracks specially upgraded for high speeds, allowing a maximum running speed of at least 200 km/h. Category III – Existing tracks specially upgraded for high speeds, allowing a maximum running speed of at least 200 km/h, the UIC prefers to use definitions because they consider that there is no single standard definition of high-speed rail, nor even standard usage of the terms. They make use of the European EC Directive 96/48, stating that high speed is a combination of all the elements which constitute the system, infrastructure, rolling stock and operating conditions. The International Union of Railways states that high-speed rail is a set of unique features, many conventionally hauled trains are able to reach 200 km/h in commercial service but are not considered to be high-speed trains. These include the French SNCF Intercités and German DB IC, National domestic standards may vary from the international ones. Railways were the first form of land transportation and had an effective monopoly on passenger traffic until the development of the motor car. Speed had always been an important factor for railroads and they tried to achieve higher speeds. The line used three-phase current at 10 kilovolts and 45 Hz, on 23 October 1903, the S&H-equipped railcar achieved a speed of 206.7 km/h and on 27 October the AEG-equipped railcar achieved 210.2 km/h. These trains demonstrated the feasibility of electric high-speed rail, however, after the breakthrough of electric railroads, it was clearly the infrastructure – especially the cost of it – which hampered the introduction of high-speed rail. Several disasters happened – derailments, head-on collisions on single-track lines, collisions with traffic at grade crossings. The physical laws were well-known, i. e. if the speed was doubled, the radius should be quadrupled
3.
Sichuan
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In antiquity, Sichuan was the home of the ancient states of Ba and Shu. Their conquest by Qin strengthened it and paved the way for the First Emperors unification of China under the Qin Dynasty, during the Three Kingdoms era, Liu Beis Shu was based in Sichuan. The area was devastated in the 17th century by Zhang Xianzhongs rebellion and the areas subsequent Manchu conquest, during the Second World War, Chongqing served as the temporary capital of the Republic of China, making it the focus of Japanese bombing. It was one of the last mainland areas to fall to the Communists during the Chinese Civil War and was divided into four parts from 1949 to 1952, with Chongqing restored two years later. It suffered gravely during the Great Chinese Famine of 1959–61 but remained Chinas most populous province until Chongqing Municipality was again separated from it in 1997, the people of Sichuan speak a unique form of Mandarin, which took shape during the areas repopulation under the Ming. The family of dialects is now spoken by about 120 million people, in Modern Chinese, the name Sichuan has the meaning four rivers and this folk etymology is usually extended to list the provinces four major rivers, the Jialing, Jinsha, Min, and Tuo. In addition to its map and Wade-Giles forms, the name has also been irregularly romanized as Szű-chuan and Szechuan. In antiquity, the area of modern Sichuan was known to the Chinese as Ba and Shu, in reference to the ancient states of Ba and it was the refuge of the Tang court during the An Lushan Rebellion of the mid-8th century. The region had its own religious beliefs and worldview. The most important native states were those of Ba and Shu, Ba stretched into Sichuan from the Han Valley in Shaanxi and Hubei down the Jialing River as far as its confluence with the Yangtze at Chongqing. Shu occupied the valley of the Min, including Chengdu and other areas of western Sichuan, the existence of the early state of Shu was poorly recorded in the main historical records of China. It was, however, referred to in the Book of Documents as an ally of the Zhou and this site, believed to be an ancient city of Shu, was initially discovered by a local farmer in 1929 who found jade and stone artefacts. The Sichuan basin is surrounded by the Himalayas to the west, the Qin Mountains to the north, Qin armies finished their conquest of the kingdoms of Shu and Ba by 316 BC. Any written records and civil achievements of earlier kingdoms were destroyed, Qin administrators introduced improved agricultural technology. Li Bing, engineered the Dujiangyan irrigation system to control the Min River and this innovative hydraulic system was composed of movable weirs which could be adjusted for high or low water flow according to the season, to either provide irrigation or prevent floods. The increased agricultural output and taxes made the area a source of provisions, Sichuan was subjected to the autonomous control of kings named by the imperial family of Han Dynasty. Shu-Han claimed to be the successor to the Han Dynasty, in 263, the Jin dynasty of North China, conquered the Kingdom of Shu-Han as its first step on the path to unify China again, under their rule. Salt production becomes a business in Ziliujing District
4.
Chongqing
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Chongqing, formerly transliterated as Chungking, is a major city in Southwest China and one of the Five national central cities in China. Administratively, it is one of Chinas four direct-controlled municipalities, the municipality was created on 14 March 1997, succeeding the sub-provincial city administration that was part of Sichuan Province. Chongqings population as of 2015 is just over 30 million with a population of 18.38 million. The official abbreviation of the city, Yu, was approved by the State Council on 18 April 1997 and this abbreviation is derived from the old name of a part of the Jialing River that runs through Chongqing and feeds into the Yangtze River. Chongqing was also a Sichuan province municipality during the Republic of China administration, Chongqing has a significant history and culture and serves as the economic centre of the upstream Yangtze basin. It is a manufacturing centre and transportation hub, a July 2012 report by the Economist Intelligence Unit described it as one of Chinas 13 emerging megacities. Tradition associates Chongqing with the State of Ba, the Ba people supposedly established Chongqing during the Spring and Autumn period after moving from their first capital Yicheng in Hubei under pressure from Chu. This new capital was first named Jiangzhou, in 316 BC, however, the state of Ba was conquered by the State of Qin. Jiangzhou subsequently remained under Qin Shi Huangs rule during the Qin Dynasty, the successor of the Qin State, and under the control of Han Dynasty emperors. Jiangzhou was subsequently renamed during the Southern and Northern Dynasties to Chu Prefecture, then in 581 AD to Yu Prefecture, the name Yu however survives to this day as an abbreviation for Chongqing, and the city centre where the old town stood is also called Yuzhong. It received its current name in 1189, after Prince Zhao Dun of the Southern Song Dynasty described his crowning as king, in his honour, Yu Prefecture was therefore renamed Chongqing subprefecture marking the occasion of his enthronement. In 1362, Ming Yuzhen, a peasant rebelling leader, established the Daxia Kingdom at Chongqing for a short time, in 1621, another short-lived kingdom of Daliang was established by She Chongming with Chongqing as its capital. The Manchus later conquered the province, and during the Qing Dynasty, immigration to Chongqing, in 1890, the British Consulate General was opened in Chongqing. The following year, the city became the first inland commerce port open to foreigners, the French, German, US and Japanese consulates were opened in Chongqing in 1896–1904. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, it was Generalissimo Chiang Kai-sheks provisional capital, the city was also visited by Lord Louis Mountbatten, the Supreme Commander of SEAC which was itself headquartered in Ceylon, modern day Sri Lanka. Chiang Kai Shek as Supreme Commander in China worked closely with Stilwell, the Japanese Air Force heavily bombed it. Due to its mountainous environment, many people were saved from the bombing, due to the bravery, contributions and sacrifices made by the local people during World War II, Chongqing became known as the City of Heroes. Many factories and universities were relocated from eastern China to Chongqing during the war, in late November 1949 the Nationalist KMT government fled the city
5.
Chengdu East Railway Station
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Chengdu East Railway Station is a railway station on the Chengyu Passenger Railway, the Chengdu–Leshan Intercity Railway and the Dacheng Railway. The station located in Chenghua, Chengdu, Sichuan, China and it is connected to Chengdu Metro Line 2. The main building of the station is divided into five levels, including an elevated Waiting Hall level, Platform Level, Arrivals Level. Total investment for its construction was set at about 3.83 billion yuan in 2011 when it was put into use, the station exterior design features a fusion of Jinsha and Sanxingdui bronze shape artistic elements of the ancient Shu culture. Beneath the outdoor squares, substantial car parking and a bus terminal is housed, passengers enter the station across the outdoor Square or direct access to the station building from two north-south elevated roads. Ticket offices exist in the top Waiting Hall area and beneath in the Arrivals Hall, the station has 14 platforms and 26 tracks, all of which are covered. The departures Waiting Hall sits above the platforms, with arrivals descending down to the Arrivals Hall level below the platforms, Chengdu East Railway Station is a terminus of the Chengdu–Chongqing Railway, Chengdu–Kunming Railway and Dazhou–Chengdu Railway. Construction began on December 29,2008, Chengdu Railway Station Chengdu Metro Media related to Chengdu East train station at Wikimedia Commons
6.
Chongqing Railway Station
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The Chongqing Railway Station is a railway station of Chengyu Railway, Xiangyu Railway, Chuanqian Railway, Chengyu Passenger Railway, that located in Peoples Republic of China. Once the most important railway station in Chongqing, this station handled virtually all long distance services to the rest of China, currently the station has been closed for major renovations, in line with construction of the Chengdu–Chongqing Intercity Railway. Until 2015, only the hall will remain open. However it is also the site of a major bus terminal. Chongqing Railway Station is a hub of Chongqing City, a municipality of China. Chongqing station is a terminus station of the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway, Xiangfan. Due to its size and location, the throughput of the station is less than it was 20 years ago. With the limitations of Chongqing citys unique mountain environment, the space is very narrow. Chongqing station will continue to maintain the capacity of the 60-year first-class station. Other stations in Chongqing have been built, upgraded or being planned to handle the passenger needs of the city. Chongqing station was opened by Marshal Liu in 1952, in 1992, the Chengdu Railway Bureau attempted to fill in the river or even build an elevated railway station to increase capacity at Chongqing station. However the existing highway and Caiyuanba interchange hub along the Yangtze River forced them to abandon the construction and this causes the expansion of Shapingba Railway Station. Reconstruction and rehabilitation works commenced in 2012, Chongqing Railway Station will be the terminus for the high-speed Chengdu–Chongqing Intercity Railway with a riverside park established on the roof. Chongqing North Railway Station Shapingba Railway Station Chongqing Railway Station
7.
China Railway High-speed
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China Railway High-speed is the high-speed rail service operated by China Railway. Hexie Hao is the designation for rolling stock operated for this service, All trains had been marked CRH, before being changed shortly afterwards to the Chinese characters 和谐号 on the centre of the head vehicles and the side of the walls of other vehicles. The introduction of CRH was a part of the sixth national railway speedup. All high-speed trains in use in China are named CRH. CRH1/2A/2B/2E/5 are expected to have a speed of 250 km/h. The new trainsets CRH380A have a maximum test speed of 416.6 km/h, the fastest trainset, CRH380BL, attained a maximum test speed of 487.3 km/h 302.8 mph). High-speed rail services were first introduced in 2007 operating with CRH rolling stock and those run on existing lines that have been upgraded to speeds of up to 250 km/h and on newer dedicated high-speed track rated up to 350 km/h. China Railway High-speed runs different electric multiple unit trainsets, the designs for which are imported from other nations and designated CRH-1 through CRH-5 and CRH380A, CRH380B, CRH trainsets are intended to provide fast and convenient travel between cities. Some of the trainsets are manufactured locally through technology transfer, a key requirement for China, the signalling, track and support structures, control software, and station design are developed domestically with foreign elements as well, so the system as a whole is predominantly Chinese. China currently holds many new patents related to the components of these trains. However, these patents are valid within China, and as such hold no international power. An order for 60 8-car sets had been placed in 2004, with the first few built in Japan and it is designed to have two versions, one with a top operating speed of 220 km/h, the other with a top operating speed of 160 km/h. They will be used on 200 km/h or 250 km/h Inter-city High Speed Rail lines, planned to service by 2011 CRH380A. CRH3C and CRH2C designs have an MOR of 300 km/h, and can reach up to 350 km/h, however, in practical terms, issues such as maintenance costs, comfort, and safety make the maximum speed of more than 380 km/h impractical and remain limiting factors. Based on data published by Sinolink Securities, some changes were made according to the most recent news. ^1 All CRH380B and CRH380C units to be delivered before 2012, ^2 All CRH380D units to be delivered before 2014. Before the introduction of technology, China conducted independent attempts to domestically develop high-speed rail technology. Some notable results included the China Star, but domestic Chinese companies lacked the technology and expertise of foreign companies, if using only their own resources and expertise, the country might need a decade or longer to catch up with developed nations
8.
China Railways CRH1
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The total value of the order is €560 million. In July 2010, a further 40 CRH1A eight-car trains were ordered, most CRH1 trains were allocated to Guangshen Railway for replacing all locomotive-hauled trains between Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong province. Some are also used on the line Shanghai – Nanjing, CRH1A and CRH1B are based on Bombardiers Regina family. The train was designed by Sifang and Bombardier jointly in Västerås, Sweden, the first units （CRH1-001A） were delivered on August 30,2006, the CRH1A sets started service from February 1,2007 at the Guangzhou -Shenzhen Railway. The NG variant is a new model, which will use new materials in order to weight reductions. On October 31,2007, the Chinese MOR ordered 20 sets of CRH1B trains, each CRH1B consists of 16 cars, including 3 first class coaches,12 second class coaches and 1 dining car. On July 23,2011, CRH1-046B was hit on ZY104600 car by CRH2-139E in Yongtaiwen PFL accident. On October 31,2007, the Chinese MOR ordered 20 sets of CRH1E trains. The CRH1E is the first high-speed 16-car sleeper train in the world which is based on Bombardiers ZEFIRO250 km/h design, the train was designed by Bombardier and Zagato. The CRH380D is also derived from the Bombardier Zefiro family of high speed EMUs and are not direct derivatives of the Regina type trains from which the CRH1A. Top speed is advertised at 380 km/h, the 8-car version is designated CRH380D, series number CRH380D-1501 ～ CRH380D-1570
9.
Track gauge
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In rail transport, track gauge is the spacing of the rails on a railway track and is measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing rails. All vehicles on a network must have running gear that is compatible with the track gauge, as the dominant parameter determining interoperability, it is still frequently used as a descriptor of a route or network. There is a distinction between the gauge and actual gauge at some locality, due to divergence of track components from the nominal. Railway engineers use a device, like a caliper, to measure the actual gauge, the nominal track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the rails. In current practice, it is specified at a distance below the rail head as the inner faces of the rail head are not necessarily vertical. In some cases in the earliest days of railways, the company saw itself as an infrastructure provider only. Colloquially the wagons might be referred to as four-foot gauge wagons, say and this nominal value does not equate to the flange spacing, as some freedom is allowed for. An infrastructure manager might specify new or replacement track components at a variation from the nominal gauge for pragmatic reasons. Track is defined in old Imperial units or in universally accepted metric units or SI units, Imperial units were established in United Kingdom by The Weights and Measures Act of 1824. In addition, there are constraints, such as the load-carrying capacity of axles. Narrow gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. Broader gauge railways are generally expensive to build and require wider curves. There is no single perfect gauge, because different environments and economic considerations come into play, a narrow gauge is superior if ones main considerations are economy and tight curvature. For direct, unimpeded routes with high traffic, a broad gauge may be preferable, the Standard, Russian, and 46 gauges are designed to strike a reasonable balance between these factors. In addition to the general trade-off, another important factor is standardization, once a standard has been chosen, and equipment, infrastructure, and training calibrated to that standard, conversion becomes difficult and expensive. This also makes it easier to adopt an existing standard than to invent a new one and this is true of many technologies, including railroad gauges. The reduced cost, greater efficiency, and greater economic opportunity offered by the use of a common standard explains why a number of gauges predominate worldwide
10.
Simplified Chinese characters
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Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of the two character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the Peoples Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to increase literacy and they are officially used in the Peoples Republic of China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Macau. Overseas Chinese communities generally tend to use traditional characters, Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name above or colloquially. Strictly, the latter refers to simplifications of character structure or body, character forms that have existed for thousands of years alongside regular, Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms, some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to a single standardized character. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. Some simplified characters are very dissimilar to and unpredictably different from traditional characters and this often leads opponents not well-versed in the method of simplification to conclude that the overall process of character simplification is also arbitrary. In reality, the methods and rules of simplification are few, on the other hand, proponents of simplification often flaunt a few choice simplified characters as ingenious inventions, when in fact these have existed for hundreds of years as ancient variants. However, the Chinese government never officially dropped its goal of further simplification in the future, in August 2009, the PRC began collecting public comments for a modified list of simplified characters. The new Table of General Standard Chinese Characters consisting of 8,105 characters was promulgated by the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China on June 5,2013, cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed, they date back to as early as the Qin dynasty, One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lubi Kui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China, Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and it was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the writing of ox-demons, lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die. Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the problems in China during that time
11.
Traditional Chinese characters
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Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong. Currently, a number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, the debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of Mainland China, Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China primarily in handwriting and also used for inscriptions and religious text. They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear, nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. Taiwan has never adopted Simplified Chinese characters since it is ruled by the Republic of China, the use of simplified characters in official documents is even prohibited by the government in Taiwan. Simplified characters are not well understood in general, although some stroke simplifications that have incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, similarly, in Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, because of the influx of mainland Chinese tourists, today, even government websites use simplified Chinese, as they answer to the Beijing government. This has led to concerns by residents to protect their local heritage. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative regarding simplification, while major public universities are teaching simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications like the Chinese Commercial News, World News, and United Daily News still use traditional characters, on the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified. Aside from local newspapers, magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, are found in some bookstores. In case of film or television subtitles on DVD, the Chinese dub that is used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan and this is because the DVDs belongs to DVD Region Code 3. Hence, most of the subtitles are in Traditional Characters, overseas Chinese in the United States have long used traditional characters. A major influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States occurred during the half of the 19th century. Therefore, the majority of Chinese language signage in the United States, including street signs, Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world
12.
Standard Chinese
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Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, Standard Chinese is a language with topic-prominent organization. It has more initial consonants but fewer vowels, final consonants, Standard Chinese is an analytic language, though with many compound words. There exist two standardised forms of the language, namely Putonghua in Mainland China and Guoyu in Taiwan, aside from a number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Putonghua is written using simplified Chinese characters, while Guoyu is written using traditional Chinese characters. There are many characters that are identical between the two systems, in English, the governments of China and Hong Kong use Putonghua, Putonghua Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, and Mandarin, while those of Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, use Mandarin. The name Putonghua also has a long, albeit unofficial, history and it was used as early as 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate a modern, standard Chinese from classical Chinese and other varieties of Chinese. For some linguists of the early 20th century, the Putonghua, or common tongue/speech, was different from the Guoyu. The former was a prestige variety, while the latter was the legal standard. Based on common understandings of the time, the two were, in fact, different, Guoyu was understood as formal vernacular Chinese, which is close to classical Chinese. By contrast, Putonghua was called the speech of the modern man. The use of the term Putonghua by left-leaning intellectuals such as Qu Qiubai, prior to this, the government used both terms interchangeably. In Taiwan, Guoyu continues to be the term for Standard Chinese. The term Putonghua, on the contrary, implies nothing more than the notion of a lingua franca, Huayu, or language of the Chinese nation, originally simply meant Chinese language, and was used in overseas communities to contrast Chinese with foreign languages. Over time, the desire to standardise the variety of Chinese spoken in these communities led to the adoption of the name Huayu to refer to Mandarin and it also incorporates the notion that Mandarin is usually not the national or common language of the areas in which overseas Chinese live. The term Mandarin is a translation of Guānhuà, which referred to the lingua franca of the late Chinese empire, in English, Mandarin may refer to the standard language, the dialect group as a whole, or to historic forms such as the late Imperial lingua franca. The name Modern Standard Mandarin is sometimes used by linguists who wish to distinguish the current state of the language from other northern. Chinese has long had considerable variation, hence prestige dialects have always existed. Confucius, for example, used yǎyán rather than colloquial regional dialects, rime books, which were written since the Northern and Southern dynasties, may also have reflected one or more systems of standard pronunciation during those times
13.
Pinyin
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Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
14.
Chongqing North Railway Station
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Chongqing North Railway Station is a railway station located in Yubei District, Chongqing City, Peoples Republic of China. It is served by the Yuhuai Railway, Suiyu Railway and Yuli Railway, prior to the construction of this station at its present site, Shapingba Railway Station was known as Chongqing North Railway Station. It was subsequently renamed to avoid confusion and to reflect the geographic nature of both stations. This station consists of two departure halls, the eastern hall is for long distance services and the western hall is for high-speed CRH trains. Arrivals are through a common underground hall, thes servicing this station are also separated into North and South Courses. The South Course handles long distance trains to many parts of China, the North Course is currently being expanded and will handle mostly high-speed intercity services. There is also access to the Chongqing Metro via Line 3 and this station currently handles most long-distance train services to and from Chongqing, whilst Chongqing Railway Station is closed for renovations. It is also the main high-speed railway connection to Chengdu via Suining, the station has been in operation since October 2006. Chongqing Railway Station Shapingba Railway Station
15.
Chengdu
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Chengdu, formerly romanized as Chengtu, is a sub-provincial city which has served as capital of Chinas Sichuan province. It is one of the three most populous cities in Western China, as of 2014 the administrative area houses 14,427,500 inhabitants, with an urban population of 10,152,632. At the time of the 2010 census, Chengdu was the 5th-most populous agglomeration in China, with 10,484,996 inhabitants in the area including Xinjin County. The surrounding Chengdu Plain is also known as the Country of Heaven and its prehistoric settlers included the Sanxingdui culture. It was the capital of Liu Beis Shu during the Three Kingdoms Era, after the fall of Nanjing to the Japanese in 1937, Chengdu briefly served as the capital of China. It is now one of the most important economic, financial, commercial, cultural, transportation, Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport is one of the 30 busiest airports in the world, and Chengdu Railway Station is one of the six biggest in China. Chengdu also hosts many international companies and more than 12 consulates, more than 260 Fortune 500 companies have established branches in Chengdu. In 2006, China Daily named it Chinas 4th-most-livable city, the name Chengdu is attested in sources going back to shortly after its founding. The present spelling is based on pinyin romanization, its Postal Map romanization was Chengtu and its former status as the seat of the Chengdu Prefecture prompted Marco Polos spellings Sindafu, Sin-din-fu, &c. and the Protestant missionaries romanization Ching-too Foo. Although the official name of the city has remained constant, the area has sometimes taken other names. The city logo adopted in 2011 is inspired by the Golden Sun Bird excavated from the Jinsha Ruins, archaeological discoveries at the Sanxingdui and Jinsha sites have established that the area surrounding Chengdu was inhabited over four thousand years ago. At the time of Chinas Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, in the early 4th century BC, the ninth king of Shus Kaiming dynasty relocated from nearby Pi County, giving his new capital the name Chengdu. Shu was conquered by Qin in 316 BC and the settlement refounded by the Qin general Zhang Yi, under the Han, the brocade produced at Chengdu became fashionable and was exported throughout China. A Brocade Official was established to oversee its quality and supply, after the fall of the Eastern Han, Liu Bei ruled Shu, the southwestern of the Three Kingdoms, from Chengdu. His minister Zhuge Liang called the area the Land of Abundance, under the Tang, Chengdu was considered the second most prosperous city in China after Yangzhou. Both Li Bai and Du Fu lived in the city, Li Bai praised it as lying above the empyrean. The citys present Caotang was constructed in 1078 in honor of an earlier, more humble structure of that name erected by Du Fu in 760, the Taoist Qingyang Gong was built in the 9th century. Chengdu was the capital of Wang Jians Former Shu from 907 to 925, the Later Shu was founded by Meng Zhixiang in 934, with its capital at Chengdu
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Suining
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Suining is a prefecture-level city of eastern Sichuan province in Southwest China. In 2002, Suining had a population of 658,798, Suining has at least one natural gas plant. Its prefecture, or administrative, area ranges in latitude from 30°1050 to 31°1050 N, or 108.9 kilometres and in longitude from 105°0326 to 106°5949 E, or 90.3 kilometres. While much of the prefecture is mountainous, the area itself. Suining has a humid subtropical climate and is largely mild and humid. Winter is short, mild, and foggy, though precipitation is low. January averages 6.5 °C, and while frost may occur, summers are long, hot and humid, with the daily average in July and August around 27 °C, with August being slightly warmer. Rainfall is light in winter and can be heavy in summer, according to local legend, Suining is the Hometown of Guanyin and her sisters. A folk song declares that one resides at Lingquan Temple, another at Guangde Temple, while only the third sister is afar, there exists Lingquan Temple, Guangde Temple, and the Dead Sea, which are regarded as the 4A scenic zone. And there is also a Celadon Museum of Sichuan, which is referred to as a 3A scenic zone, the percentage of land-covered forests of Suining is approximately 34%, its the first Provincial Environmental Protection City in Sichuan. Chen Ziang, Tang dynasty poet, was a native of the Suining area and his lawyer was repeatedly prevented from meeting him in detention in stark violation of Chinese law. Liu Xianbin, a pro-democracy activist born in 1968 who has arrested in June 2010. Li Bifeng, a pro-democracy activist and friend of Liao Yiwu who is facing 5-years prison for false economic crimes
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Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
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Chengdu Metro
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Chengdu Metro is the local mass rapid train transportation system in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, China. Line 1 was constructed between December 2005 and 2010, and opened at Sep 27th, making it the first heavy-rail metro line in south, and Line 2 began operations in September 2012. Line 4 opened to public at the end of December 2015, Metro lines are operated by Chengdu Metro Limited Liability Company. Commuter rail lines such as the Chengdu–Dujiangyan Intercity Railway are operated by Chengdu City Commuter Railway Limited Liability Company and it is Chinas first joint venture between a local government and Chinas national rail operator. The city and the Ministry of Railways worked together in building metro lines, a light rail system north northwest of Chengdu began construction at October 2015, and will open to public in 2017. Chengdu Metros first subway line, Line 1, started construction on December 28,2005, construction of Line 2 began on 29 December 2007. Line 1 opened on 27 September 2010, Line 4 started construction on 22 July 2011. On 25 April 2012, Line 3 was approved by the Development and Reform Commission On 16 January 2012, on 28 April 2012, Line 3 started construction. On 8 June 2013, Line 2 West Extension to Xipu, Ocean Park was then renamed to Jincheng Plaza. On 26 October 2014, Line 2 East Extension to Longquanyi opened, on 25 July 2015, Line 1 South Extension was opened. On December 10,2015, Line 4 phase 1 was opened, on July 31,2016, Line 3 phase 1 was opened. On February 27,2017, Chengdu Metro Ltd changed its name to Chengdu Rail Transit Group Co. Ltd, there will be five lines constructed in the first phase, covering 126 km with 116 stations including 11 interchange stations. Line 1 has 17 stations at along the 18.50 kilometre route, starting at Shengxian Lake, Line 2 has 26 stations along the 31.20 kilometre route, starting at Xipu and ending at Chengdu Institute of Administration. The first phase of Line 1 cost 7 billion yuan to construct, a natural ventilation system has been used in the construction of the underground section of Line 1 on the subway system from Southern Third Ring Road to Chengdu New Exhibition and Convention Center. Square ventilation units are built every 30m along the top to allow fresh air from the ground enter the construction site underground. The method is used in construction in other countries as it cuts the construction cost. The subway system is the first in China to adopt such a system during construction. Chengdu Metro is planning to set up a section for subway fire control, Line 2 is a crosstown northwest-southeast trunk route
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China Railway
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It used to be part of the now defunct Ministry of Railways. China Railway operates passenger and freight transport via several smaller companies, China Railway previously had its own police force, Prosecutors Office and court system, which was unique among the worlds railways. Some critics say the company turns these police into its own security guard, the original China Railway logo was designed by Chen Yuchang, as announced in the Peoples Daily on 22 January 1950. There are 16 bureau and 5 companies under China Railway, as of 2008, approximately 2 million people work in China Railway. Containers must be transferred several times, as different, incompatible, rail gauges are used in different regions, China has been investing in and helping to rebuild railways in Africa. Below is an incomplete list of rail projects
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Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport
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Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport is the major international airport serving Chengdu, the capital of Chinas Sichuan Province. Located about 16 kilometres southwest of downtown Chengdu to the north of Shuangliu District, Shuangliu Airport is one of the two core hubs for Air China, together with Beijing, as well as the main hub and headquarters for Sichuan Airlines and Chengdu Airlines. China Eastern Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Lucky Air and Tibet Airlines also have bases at Shuangliu Airport, Shuangliu Airport handled 42.2 million passengers in 2015. It was among worlds top 30 busiest airport in 2015, the 4th busiest in mainland China, and it was also the 5th busiest airport in terms of cargo traffic in China for 2013. Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport becomes the 4th busiest airport in China, the airport, formerly named Shuangguisi Airport, opened as an auxiliary military airfield in 1938 during the Second Sino-Japanese War/World War II. At the time, its runway was only enough for small biplanes. During World War II, the airport was known as Shwangliu Airfield and was used by the United States Army Air Forces Fourteenth Air Force as part of the China Defensive Campaign. The Americans closed their facilities at Shwangliu Airfield at the end of August 1945, on December 12,1956, the Shuangguisi Airport was put under civil aviation, which was then formally listed as a civil aviation airport and renamed Chengdu Shuangliu Airport. In 1957, the flights of Chengdu civil aviation were shifted to Shuangliu Airport from Guanghan Airport, the flight courses from Chengdu were thus opened to various cities within China including Beijing, Taiyuan, Xian, Chongqing, Kunming, Guiyang, Nanchong, etc. The airport went through several expansions in 1959,1967,1983 and 1991 respectively. A large-scale expansion was conducted on flight area and navigation area from 1994 to 2001, the runway was extended to 3,600 metres with Class 4E rating, allowing for larger jumbo jets including the Boeing 747-400. It is linked to downtown Chengdu by the Airport Expressway and the Chengdu - Mianyang/Emeishan High-speed Railway, the construction of its second runway started from late 2008, and service commenced in December 2009. The completed new runway,3,600 metres in length and 60 metres width, upgraded the previous flight area rating from 4E to 4F, T1 is split into Domestic and International wings, and retained all international flights from airlines within and outside China. The new terminal is twice the size of the current T1, prior to 2014, the airport had no nonstop flights to the United States. Passengers traveling from Chengdu to the United States had to connect at Beijing–Capital and/or Shanghai–Pudong and this shortcoming in service at Chengdu was resolved beginning on June 9,2014, as United Airlines began operating a nonstop service from San Francisco to Chengdu, operated with a Boeing 787-8. As long as China Southwest Airlines existed, its headquarters were on the airport property, Airport Bus No.1, Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport - City Centre, Single ticket, ￥10. Airport Bus No.2, Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport - Chengdu Railway Station, Single ticket, Airport Bus No.3, Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport - Chengdu East Railway Station, Single ticket, ￥12. Airport Bus No.4, Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport - Century City, Single ticket and it costs about RMB60 Yuan from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport to city centre of Chengdu
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Chengdu Railway Station
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Chengdu Railway Station is one of the 3 major railway stations in Chengdu, China, the others being Chengdu South Railway Station and Chengdu East Railway Station. The station is located on North Second Ring Road, Jinniu District and it is governed by Chengdu Railway Bureau and is one of the most important hubs of the railway network in China. This railway station is called by locals as Huǒ Chē Běi Zhàn. However, confusingly there is officially named Chengdu North Railway Station,17 km north of this station. Chengdu Railway Station can be reached by taking Chengdu Metro Line 1, media related to Chengdu train station at Wikimedia Commons
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Urban rail transit in China
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Urban rail transit in the Peoples Republic of China encompasses a broad range of urban and suburban electric passenger rail mass transit systems including subway, light rail, tram and maglev. Some classifications also include non-rail bus rapid transport, several Chinese cities had urban electric tramways in the early 20th century, which were dismantled in the 1950s-1970s. Nanjing had a railway from 1907 to 1958. The first subway in China was built in Beijing in 1969, the Tianjin Metro followed in 1984. Since 2000, the growth of transit systems in Chinese cities has accelerated. The Shanghai Metro despite being the worlds longest only started operating in 1993, from 2009 to 2015, China built 87 mass transit rail lines, totaling 3100 km, in 25 cities at the cost of ¥988.6 billion. Today China boasts both the worlds longest and second longest metro systems, out of the top 10 busiest metro systems in the world 4 of them are in China. As of early 2016, China has 3195.6 km of subway lines, hong Kongs MTR Corporation has investment, consulting and management stakes in the rapid transit systems of several mainland Chinese cities. As of January 2016,26 Chinese cities have metro systems and 39 more have metro systems approved according to the National Development, China plans to spend 4.7 trillion yuan on transport infrastructure in the next 3 years. The Chinese government published a transport whitepaper titled Development of Chinas Transport as part of its 13th Five Year Plan, the plan envisions a more sustainable transport system with priority focused on high-capacity public transit particularly urban rail transit and bus rapid transit. All cities with over 3 million residents will start or continue developing urban rail networks, regional railway networks will internally connect and integrate urban agglomerations such as the Jingjinji, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta areas. BRT systems with light blue background are not yet operational but under construction or proposed. org China Bus Rapid Transit Network
Chengdu Metro
Guang'an Metro
C-train
Chongqing RT