Monday, October 5, 2015

'Belt and Road' initiative: The first China-built high-speed rail in Turkey

Reporter: Zou Yue 丨 CCTV.com  10-05-2015

China boasts the fastest and longest high-speed railways in the world. And the world is taking notice. Turkey's Istanbul-Ankara high-speed railway was built by China.
It was a first for the China Railway Construction Corporation, but also a first for Liu Lin. He has been the on-the-ground man for China's largest railway contractor for 6 years. And it was a rough beginning.
Liu Lin, General Manager of Chinese Railway Contractor said:"A Chinese state-owned company and a private Turkish company. It was like a marriage from afar." To make the marriage work, Liu tried every way to bridge the differences.
"The ways we both do business are different. Execution and efficiency, applying these here was a big problem.  We learned the hard way - which maybe is not the best way to do it," said Liu.
$1.2 billion and 4 years of intensive construction later, China's first highspeed rail built outside the country has become a reality. Chinese contractors have finished one third of the 500 kilometer project. So far it's turned out to be a success. But to see how successful it is, we took the train from Ankara to Istanbul.  And we were allowed access to the driver's cabin.

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