By+Li+Fangfang

Nan Baojun， 43， a veteran railway steward with 20 years experience， was excited when she spoke to Beijing Review on a test high-speed train running from Urumqi to Shanshan in northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. “Xinjiang finally has its high-speed railway，” she exclaimed with glee.

At 9：50 a.m. on June 3， a CRH2-061C highspeed train began its 283-km journey from Urumqi to Shanshan to test the Xinjiang section of the second double-track line of the LanzhouXinjiang Railway.

The railway， which was first built in 1952-62， is the only one that connects Xinjiang with other parts of China. The new line starts in Lanzhou， capital of Gansu Province， and takes a slightly different route， winding through the neighboring Qinghai Province before re-entering Gansu and joining the old route that heads northwest toward Xinjiang.

The 1，776-km new line crosses a vast expanse of the Gobi Desert and other areas with harsh natural conditions including extreme temperatures and wind speeds， both of which needed technical innovations to overcome.

Construction of the Xinjiang stretch of the railroad， which runs for 710 km in total， began in March 2010. After the last section between Gansu and Qinghai finishes its test running in September， the new line will start trial operation. It will be finally put into use at the end of 2014. With the new railway， travel time between Lanzhou and Urumqi will be cut from the current 21 hours to 8 hours or less.

Xinjiangs local residents have longed for the opening of the high-speed railway for a long time.

“When I took a taxi to go to work， the driver asked me when Xinjiang would have its own high-speed railway，” said Nan， who will be in charge of all the attendants on the route after it is put into use. “When I went to get a haircut， the hairdresser also asked me if it was true that Xinjiang was building a high-speed railroad.”

The trial run on June 3 included tests on dynamic response， rails， communications and aerodynamics， and all the results were within safety limits， said Fu Lianzhu， chief engineer of the lines trial run project.

This section is designed for an average speed of 250 km per hour when it begins operations. During the test， the speed used was 10 percent faster， 275 km per hour， to make extra sure that everything is operating as expected.

“We had to undertake nine days of testing before we started the trial run，” Fu said.endprint

According to Fu， the train began its trial run at a speed of 160 km per hour， regularly increasing its speed by 20-km increments. After the speed exceeded 200 km per hour， the increases were lowered 10 km per hour until it reached 275 km per hour.

“On account of the high speeds， we drivers have to take turns [to get a chance to experience it]，” said Adi Tuerdi， 34， an Uygur train driver. Besides Tuerdi， there is also one Kazak and 10 Han ethnic drivers on the trial highspeed train. They were all selected from train drivers working in Xinjiang.

Tuerdi experienced tough tests as a candidate over the past several months. The basic criterion is that a driver has healthy physical and mental condition and good knowledge of Chinas railways. When he passed his interview in Beijing， Tuerdi was given the opportunity to learn the theoretical knowledge needed for high-speed trains and receive practical training.

Tuerdi received his driving classes in Baoji， northwest Chinas Shaanxi Province， and Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu， Sichuan Province， some 3，000 km far away from Urumqi.

He practiced his skills at the Wuhan multiple unit train depot in central Chinas Hubei Province， one of the four major depots in China. The other three are in Beijing， Shanghai and Guangzhou in south Chinas Guangdong Province.

However， the highest priority is a train drivers recorded safe-driving distance. They cannot have violations within at least 100，000 km of one another. Tuerdis safe-driving distance is 573，400 km， which he has worked up since his career as a train driver started in 2003.

“Im proud to be the first Uygur driver of the high-speed trains in Xinjiang. Its also a pride for my family， and even for all Uygurs，” Tuerdi said.

Not that far

When Tuerdi worked for the UrumqiHami section of the old route of the Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway， it took more than six hours to travel the roughly 600 km of the route.

But when the high-speed railway goes into operation， it will be possible to traverse it in as little as two and a half hours. “Itd be possible to make a day trip to and from Urumqi to Hami， a city in south Xinjiang，” Tuerdi said.

For people in Xinjiang， online shopping is not as convenient as it is in the rest of China because of the long wait for packages and higher delivery fees.

For those using SunFeng Express， a premium delivery company in China known for its efficiency， delivering a package from Beijing to Urumqi takes a week at least and costs 24 yuan（$3.84） per km. However， customers in other provinces， with the exception of those in southwest Chinas Tibet Autonomous Region and in Qinghai， their purchases can arrive in two days and the delivery fees can be so low that some online vendors are even willing to cover them for their customers. Whats worse， some online business owners rejected orders from Xinjiang to avoid the hassles of the inconvenient transportation arrangements.endprint