China's first magnetic levitation (maglev) train for commercial use is expected to be finished by the end of next month.
The train, which will be raised eight millimetres above the rails, is designed to travel at 80 kilometres per hour.
It is being constructed by the Changchun Passenger Railway Car Plant in Northeast China's Jilin Province.
The train will be 11 metres long, weigh 18 tons and carry about 80 passengers.
The train is scheduled to run next year between Dujiangyan and Qingcheng Hill, two famous tourist destinations in Southwest China's Sichuan Province.
A similar train is also expected to start operating in Beijing's Badaling Great Wall area in 2002.
That route would be 2.6 kilometres long, from the Badaling carpark to the foot of the Great Wall.
Beijing Badaling Tourism Company and local companies plan to invest US$23 million in the high-tech project.
It has been authorized by Beijing municipal government, and Hunan's Changsha based University of National Defence Science and Technology will deal with related technical issues.
Passengers will be carried along the Badaling maglev route at speeds of up to 70 kilometres an hour.
But this is nothing compared to what is planned for Shanghai. There, a 35 kilometre-long maglev railway linking Pudong International Airport with Longyang Metro Station in Pudong is planned, which will be finished in 2003.
It will be able to travel at 300 kilometres per hour.
The train, which will cost around 150 million yuan (US$18 million) to build, will take just seven minutes to reach its destination.
Each passenger will pay 50 yuan (US$6) per trip.
German Trans-rapid International are negotiating the details of the project.
Some experts are keen to bring the technology to Beijing as well. But others say the railway should not be introduced at all, saying it will increase China's economic burden.
However, many believe maglev railways cost just 85 percent of the cost of high-speed wheeled trains, so therefore should be developed.
This year, 30 delegates from the National People's Congress urged the congress to press for an early decision on the Shanghai project.
Sources with the State Development Planning Commission indicated earlier this year that the train will be built in the first half of the tenth Five-Year-plan period (2001-2005).
(China Daily)
