Railway provide a vital transportation mode in China. By the end of 2005, there were 70,000 km of track in use. This length ranks third in the world.

Chinese trunk railway lines can be divided into two groups, namely south-north lines and east-west ones. There are many important hubs where south-north and east-west lines crisscross or join each other, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Harbin, Xuzhou, Xi'an and Wuhan. The east-west trunk lines mainly include Beijing-Baotou and Baotou-Lanzhou lin, Lianyungang-Lanzhou and Lanzhou-Urumqi line, Shanghai-hangzhou, Hangzhou-Nanchang, Zhuzhou-Guiyang and Guizhou-Kunming line. The south-north trunk railways mainly include Beijing-Harbin and Beijing-Guangzhou line, Beijing-Shanghai line, Beijing-Kowloon line, Jiaozuo-Liuzhou line, Baoji-Chengdu and Chengdu-Kunming line. These three east-west and five south-north lines form the basic framework of Chinese trunk railways.

Beijing-Guangzhou line extends from Beijing in the north to Guangzhou in the south, running through Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan and Guangdong provinces. It covers 2,324 km and is the main artery of transportation from north to south, carrying heavy loads of goods and passengers.

Beijing-Shanghai line is the major trunk line in eastern China, linking cities of Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai and four provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Anhui and Jiangsu. This line is the main route that connects Beijing with East China with a total length of 1,462 km. Cities and towns cluster along this line, making this region the most prosperous area in China.

Beijing-kowloon line is another north-south main artery, situated between two longitudinal lines - Beijing-Guangzhou and Beijing-Shanghai lines. It bears great importance in strengthening connection between the nation's capital and Hong Kong, as well as between the country north and south areas.

Longhai-Lanxin Railway has two parts. One part, called Longhai line, starts from Lianyungang in the east to Lanzhou in the northwest with a length of 1,736 km; the other part, namely Lanxin line, is about 1,904 km long, and extends from Lanzhou westward to Urumqi in XinJiang. Now, Lanxin Line has further extended westward to Ala Mountain Pass. Connecting to Kazakhstan rail system, it has become a key component in Eurasian continental bridge. Longhai-Lanxin Railway, a transportaition aorta traversing China from east to west, has an important role to play in connecting east and west, coastal areas and inland, as well as China and Europe, and also in developing the western region of China.

The 1,956-km-long Qinghai-Tibet Railway, from Xining in Qinghai province via Golmud to Lhasa in Tibet is the highest railway in the world. On July 1st 2006, this railway was put into use. The success in building Qinghai-Tibet Railway marks a fundamental change of Tebet transportation and guarantees the substainable development of Tibet economy in the future.