» Central government approves 25 new rail projects in cities
across the country, worth hundreds of billions of dollars of new
construction. With China’s growth slowing — a product of
internal economic changes as well as the continued poor
performance of the U.S. and Europe — the country’s government
has decided to accelerate investments in its cities’ rapid
transit networks as part of a larger transportation
infrastructure program. About $127 billion (or 800 billion yuan)
is to be directed over the next three to eight years to build 25
subways and elevated rail lines as a stimulus whose major
benefit will be a increase in mobility for the rapidly
urbanizing nation. Though China’s high-speed rail network (now
the largest in the world) has garnered most of the headlines
when it comes to transportation there, the nation’s investments
in urban rail have been just as dramatic and serve far more
people on a daily basis. Its three largest metropolitan areas —
Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing — feature the world’s fo