Capturing iron horses

When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, China's railway system amounted to only about 21,800 kilometers. Today, China has reached 112,000 km of operational tracks, and China's 6,000 km high-speed rail system is more than half of the world's total. By the end of 2014, China's railway construction investment totaled 808.8 billion yuan ($130 billion; 119 billion euros). A record high of 8,427 km new lines had been put into operation.

Passenger and freight transport reforms have made important breakthroughs, with passenger traffic volume surging to 2.32 billion, an increase of 12 percent from the previous year. This double-digit growth has been maintained for two consecutive years.

Wang Wei, 22, is a freelance photographer who documents China's railroads. He has trekked to the top of hills, and climbed stairs, trees, bridges and even forded a river to capture the soul of railroads. He has travelled more than 20,000 km on 60 rail lines, and has taken more than 3 million train photos.

"I used to live next to the Beijing North Railway Station in my childhood. I have been deeply fond of trains ever since. Railway photography in China is not very popular and not many people take the time to discover the beauty of it. It is almost exclusive among railway enthusiasts. China's railway culture is way behind that of Japan and Europe, but I hope my tiny effort here might attract more people to these wondrous machines," he says.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 05/01/2015 page4)