Rail completion

The final product, the CRH-3 (China Railway High-speed) train, is unique to China.

"The entire design is made to suit our needs. As agreed, we own the intellectual property rights of this type of high-speed train," the ministry's Zhang Shuguang said.

Except for three trains manufactured in Germany, the rest of the 57 trains were all produced locally, in Tangshan. Each costs 200 million yuan, Zhang said.

The trains on the Beijing-Tianjin line are also upgrades carried out by Chinese engineers based on the 200-250kmh bullet trains, under a cooperation program between China and Japan.

(China Daily July 24, 2008)