China's high-speed railway economy taking shape (3)

"One-city Effect" pushes the high-speed railway economy

As China possesses a large population and a vast territory, the time and space span between China's economy and society is huge. Uneven population distribution and economic development in China determines that the production and market consumption need to be connected using a high-speed, long-distance and large-capacity rail transport channel.

"The operation of high-speed railways has substantially increased the cargo and passenger transport capacity of transportation channels and promoted the inter-regional rapid flow of human resources, material goods, capital and information flow. It has become an important guarantee for the development of regional coordination," said Su Shunhu, deputy director of the Transportation Bureau of the Ministry of Railways.

When the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway was put into operation, a large number of businesspeople from home and aboard observed the commercial opportunities of the high-speed railway, and this caused an investment boom along the line. As Wuhan and Xianning can directly benefit from the operation of the high-speed railway, the GDP of the two cities both increased nearly 16 percent in the first quarter of 2010.

In addition, the tourism revenue of the two cities increased by nearly 37 percent and nearly 167 percent, respectively; the real estate investments increased by nearly 73 percent and nearly 45 percent, respectively; the urban fixed asset investments increased by nearly 37 percent and nearly 59 percent, respectively; the actual foreign direct investments increased by more than 21 percent and nearly 26 percent, respectively and the total retail sales of consumer goods increased by nearly 18 percent and nearly 22 percent, respectively.

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