Daqin Railway also known as the Daqin Line , is a 653 km coal-transport railway in north China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. Its name is derived from its two terminal cities, Datong

Datong

Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province of North China, located a few hundred kilometres west by rail from Beijing with an elevation of...

, a coal mining center in Shanxi province, and Qinhuangdao

Qinhuangdao

Qinhuangdao is a port city in northeastern Hebei province of North China. It is about 300 km east of Beijing, on the Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea....

, of Hebei

Hebei

' is a province of the People's Republic of China in the North China region. Its one-character abbreviation is "" , named after Ji Province, a Han Dynasty province that included what is now southern Hebei...

 province, on the Bohai Sea

Bohai Sea

Bohai Sea , also known as Bohai Gulf, Bohai, or Bo Hai, is the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea on the coast of Northeastern and North China. It is approximately 78,000 km2 Bohai Sea , also known as Bohai Gulf, Bohai, or Bo Hai, is the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea on the coast of...

.

The railway also passes through the municipalities of Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

 and Tianjin

Tianjin

' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...

. Unlike most other railways in China, which are run by the Ministry of Railways

Ministry of Railways of the People's Republic of China

The Ministry of Railways of the People's Republic of China is a member of the State Council of the People's Republic of China...

, the Daqin Railway is operated by Daqin Railway Company Limited

Daqin Railway Company Limited

Daqin Railway Company Limited is a SSE 50 company that operates several railways in China, most famously the Daqin Railway, a 653 km coal-transport railway in north China built during 1985 - 1992. Besides Daqin railway, It also operates several railway lines, with a total length of...

, a publicly-traded stock company.

The electrified double track

Double track

A double track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single track railway where trains in both directions share the same track.- Overview :...

 line serves as a major conduit for moving coal produced in Shanxi

Shanxi

' is a province in Northern China. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋" , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....

, Shaanxi

Shaanxi

' is a province in the central part of Mainland China, and it includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River in addition to the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of this province...

 and Inner Mongolia

Inner Mongolia

Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...

 to Qinhuangdao, China's largest coal-exporting seaport, from there coal is shipped to south China and other countries in Asia.

The line was constructed in two phases between December 1984 and December 1992, with specifications changed from single-track to double-track during construction. Design capacity was 100 million tons a year, which it reached after ten years, but continuous upgrades (wider subgrade, 75 kg/m rails, wagons with higher capacity and top speed, longer trains and stronger locomotives, radio operation and centralised traffic control, automatic train inspection) quadrupled capacity. It carries more coal than any other railway line in China and the world.

Freight trains operating on the Daqin Line can carry up to 20,000 metric tons, the largest carrying capacity in China.

Year	Transport volume (metric tons)
...
1995	20 million
...
2000	60.52 million
...
2002	100 million
2003	120 million
2004	153 million
2005	203 million
2006	250 million
2007	300 million
2008	340 million
2009	330 million
2010	380 million planned

See also

• Coal energy in China
• List of railways in China
• Rail transport in the People's Republic of China
  Rail transport in the People's Republic of China
  Rail transport is the most commonly used mode of long-distance transportation in the People's Republic of China. Almost all rail operations are handled by the Ministry of Railways, which is part of the State Council of the People's Republic of China...