By Augustus K. Yeung
Introduction
China's first high-speed rail line across the Gobi Desert symbolizes a modern China amid political storms posed here and there now and then by the United States and its allies: The challenges that the bullet train has to face—include the inhospitable terrain on the train railway; the track; high wind and the sand storm, and the top engineering scientists involved in building the tract and keeping the train and its passengers safe—are far too comparable and inseparable between this "China's first bullet train" and that destiny of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Both the storm-tested bullet train and the war-tested CCP are "of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth."
China Featuring its First Bullet Train 7 Years ago
The 1,776 km line from Xinjiang capital's Urumqi to Lanzhou in Gansu province—also the world's longest high-speed railway—opened seven years ago in 2014.
The track was built on a costly, ballast-free foundation able to remain stable at vastly different temperatures and allowing speeds of up to 350km/h.
"However, strong winds carrying large amount of sand could increase the drag on bullet trains by nearly a third, while causing serious erosion on the train body, windscreen and wheels," researchers led by mechanical engineering professor Jin Afang at Xinjiang University found.
Computer Modelling Shows the Extent of the Challenge
"The top speed of the train was capped at 250km/h after the service was launched in 2014. But in recent years, the speed in many sections had been reduced to 200km/h or below."
"While operational data on the Xinjiang-Lanzhou line is not publicly available, computer modelling by Professor Jin and her colleagues at Xinjiang University suggests that, even at the current top speed of 200km/h, the large grains of sand could cause the train's external components to lose a tenth of their paintwork after a moderate storm.
"Choosing elastic coating material that can reduce erosion and wear of particles on the impact surface is critical [for safe operation]," Jin's team said in their paper published in the domestic peer-reviewed journal Machinery Design and Manufacture earlier this month.
The High-speed Railway is a Strategic Infrastructure Project
The Urumqi-Lanzhou high-speed railway is a strategic infrastructure project connecting the far western Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to the rest of China.
Built in just five years, it is the world's first high-speed rail to run through a desert. The track also stretches through the high-altitude Qilian mountain range, and trains must tackle five strong-wind zones along the way. Even for low-speed trains in the region, the wind could be a risk factor.
"In recent years, high winds have derailed 13 [regular speed trains, with 79 carriages overturned, causing a major impact on the safety of passengers and economic activities," the researchers said.
"The Greater the Speed, the More Difficult…"
Their computer simulation based on the Gobi landscape found sandstorms not only affected the front of a high-speed train running against the wind, but [it] could even generate strong turbulence able to destabilise the rear section. The greater the speed, the more difficult it would be to keep a train on the tracks during a storm," according to Jin and her team.
Half of the high-speed line has to go through unhabitable valleys recording some of the strongest winds in the planet, according to a study by engineering scientist Wang Dashuai at the Henan High-speed Railway Operation and Maintenance Engineering Research Centre.
For two-thirds of the year, these areas are buffeted by storms with wind speeds of up to 60 metres per second—the highest limit for measuring instruments at most weather stations.
But all high-speed trains have stayed on track even during such fierce winds. Alarm systems are planted along the tracks, capable of forcing a train to stop should the wind speed exceed a safety threshold.
Hundreds of kilometres of walls were erected on both sides of the rail line to reduce the impact of winds and sand on trains. In the windiest areas, huge tunnels of steel and concrete were built to create a more protected environment for trains to pass through. ("Slow going for high-speed travel on Gobi Desert line." South China Morning Post, Thursday, November 18, 2021.)
Conclusion
Considering the challenges, without the determination of China's experts, without their scientific knowledge, without the strong will and brilliant feats of engineering of the CCP leadership, the 1,776km line from Xinjiang's capital Urumqi to Lanzhou in Gansu province—the world's longest high-speed railway, buffeted by storms with wind speeds of up to 60 metre per second—would not have been possible.
The high-speed train has made a name for itself: Just look at the beaming smiles of its Tibetan and Muslim railway passengers, and you will know that it is all the results of blissful thinking. Historically, many of these people's predecessors were working class people oppressed by those wealthy landlords and warlords, who had carved up the autonomous regions and mainland China.
Without the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), many of these passengers would still be slaves today, just like many poor Chinese people all over China.
The CCP is itself a work of miracle: It has taken the Chinese one hundred years for their literati, the elite scholars, and the revolutionaries to organize themselves under one ideology, given one mind and unite all Chinese of various ethnic backgrounds to come up with a political model which is totally unthink of on earth in human history.
Look at India, a democratic country based on British parliamentary democracy, look at Iran, a religious orthodoxy, or even the United States today is still deeply troubled by bipartisanship whose bickering is threatening to tear the beautiful country apart. While China's going up, alas America is going down…
As the nation celebrates the CCP centenary, with people bathing in its achievements, the troubled world is now given a new hope: model on China's one-party administration, which practices the political ideology of unity of opposites, thereby, avoiding time-consuming parliamentary procedures, or saving the nation from factional politics--taking the waning US as a case in point.
Taking the high-speed train, an engineering feat, or any of China's great achievements, the greatest achievement of all has got to be the founding and forming of the CCP--China's body, mind and destiny!
The author is a freelance writer; formerly Adjunct Lecturer, taught MBA Philosophy of Management, and International Strategy, and online columnist of 3-D Corner (HKU SPACE), University of Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Read more articles by Augustus K. Yeung:
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