Space-age rail network may be in pipeline

Designers are investigating a revolutionary system that would employ magnetic levitation and hyperloops, as Zhao Lei reports.

A poll recently conducted by Beijing Foreign Studies University showed that the speed and convenience offered by high-speed rail, online shopping, shared bikes and mobile phone-based payment apps are the four things young expats in China view most favorably.

And of those four items, it seems likely that high-speed rail will remain on the list for a long time as the country works to retain its place as the home of the world's fastest trains. Now, Chinese designers are developing a bullet train capable of achieving a top speed of 400 kilometers per hour on conventional tracks, along with a magnetic levitation, or maglev, train that is expected to run at 600 km/h.