Now and then: China's high-speed rail revolution

Workers check the electric line on Guangzhou high-speed railway track in East China's Guangdong province, Oct 11, 2011. [Photo by Zhang Qiaoling/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Called "the railway salesman", Premier Li Keqiang pushes for contracts whenever he goes abroad.

The super salesman talked with 12 countries including Ethiopia, Nigeria, UK, USA, Russia, Kazakhstan and Thailand on railway cooperation last year, according to China Economic Weekly.

As of the first half of last year China's top two train makers, China CNR Corporation and CSR Corporation, have won 27.63 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) worth of orders from abroad. Their rail products have been shipped to more than 90 countries.

Fast work, ample experience and low costs are at the cutting edge. The weighted average unit cost for a line was 129m yuan ($20.7 million) per km for a 350 km/h project and 87m yuan ($14 million) per km for a 250 km/h project. This is significantly less than the 300 million yuan ($48.3 million) it will cost in other countries.