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THE heart of Chinas national railway policy has beenthe pursuit of speed. And having built the worldslongest high-speed network from scratch, this weekthe country proudly launched its showcase project,the 1,318km Beijing-Shanghai line.Running at speeds of over 300km an hour, the sleek electric train cuts the travel time betweenChinas two most important cities by nearly half, to four hours and 48 minutes. 中国国有铁路政策的核心就是追求高速。并且白手起家建起了世界上最长的高速铁路网，这周中国骄傲的宣布，这条起示范作用的的全长1318km的京沪高铁开始运行。运行时速达到300km，这辆流线型的电车把中国最重要的两个城市的交通时间缩短了将近一半，降至4小时48分钟。 The service is designed as a rival to air travel. Indeed, at Beijing South station, the ultra-modern facility resembles an airport. The other terminus, meanwhile, actually is at Shanghaisdomestic airport. But that means travellers lose the benefit of a downtown arrival, oftentouted as an advantage of trains. Even on intermediate stops, stations are far from urbancentres. 这条铁路服务是为和航空竞争而设计的。在北京南站，这个超现代化的车站有点像飞机场。同时，另一个终点站实际上是在上海国内机场。这就意味着乘客失去了在市区下车的便利，这常常是用来夸耀的火车的优势。甚至在中间的站点，车站也离着市中心很远。 | 
