A long-rail transport train runs on the Poyang Lake Grand Bridge of the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway

A single line linking famous scenic spots such as Poyang Lake, Jingdezhen and Huangshan.

Along the way, clear waters stretch to the horizon, vast waves of rice paddies roll out, and scattered dwellings dot the landscape, showcasing the beauty of the great land.

This is the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway, running from Nanchang City in Jiangxi Province through Jingdezhen City to Huangshan City in Anhui Province, with a main line length of 289.9 kilometers and 10 stations along the route.

On August 25, as the first inspection train departed from Huangshan North Station to test the track and overhead contact system, the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway officially entered the joint commissioning and testing stage, moving one step closer to opening for operation.

An Ecological Route

Four counties and one city in northern Jiangxi bid farewell to the history of lacking high-speed rail at 350 kilometers per hour, fully delivering on the ecological engineering goal of a "Beautiful Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan."

In East China, where the rail network is well developed, why build a new Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway?

Zhang Handong, chief engineer of the Changjiu Intercity Railway Company, the construction unit of the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway, analyzed that building this railway brings two major benefits:

First, it relieves passenger pressure on the Shanghai-Kunming High-Speed Railway. Currently, passenger flow from Shanghai and Zhejiang to Jiangxi and Hunan via the Shanghai-Kunming High-Speed Railway is large and capacity is tight. Running parallel to the Shanghai-Kunming High-Speed Railway, the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway will serve as an auxiliary supplementary line in the future, effectively easing the operating pressure on the Shanghai-Kunming High-Speed Railway.

Second, it improves the regional high-speed rail transport network. Via the Nanchang hub, the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway can connect with the Beijing-Hong Kong and Shanghai-Kunming High-Speed Railways, and via Huangshan it can link with the Hefei-Fuzhou and Hangzhou-Huangshan High-Speed Railways, forming another major high-speed rail artery connecting the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River with the Yangtze River Delta.

"After the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway opens for operation, it will also achieve interconnectivity among multiple existing railways in northern Jiangxi, ending the history of four counties and one city—Fuliang, Leping, Yugan, Poyang and Jingdezhen—lacking high-speed rail at 350 kilometers per hour," Zhang Handong said.

The ingenious route selection also makes the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway a strong contender for "most beautiful railway." Huangshan, Yaoli Ancient Town, Poyang Lake... the high-speed line threads through them all, with mountain scenery, lakes and rice fields in breathtaking beauty.

"With scenery this beautiful, we must never damage the environment through construction," Zhang Handong said. The Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway passes through Poyang Lake, a breeding ground for the Yangtze finless porpoise; Junshan Lake, a pollution-free aquatic product breeding base; Jinxi Lake, a habitat for white swans; and numerous animal reserves and scenic areas, placing extremely high demands on environmental protection.

During construction, all construction units strictly implemented the environmental impact assessment system, comprehensively carrying out ecological protection along the railway—from the design of borrow and spoil sites, mud discharge, and tunnel sewage treatment to animal habitat protection, basic farmland protection and line greening—fully delivering on the ecological engineering goal of a "Beautiful Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan."

Take the Jinxi Lake Grand Bridge, for example. With a total length of 33.1 kilometers, it crosses Jinxi Lake, an important branch lake of Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake, and part of a national nature reserve.

"Throughout the entire construction process, all mud, spoil and sewage were transported off-site. For sludge that might splash out, mud boxes were used for protection so the lake water would never be polluted. At the same time, excavated areas were backfilled immediately and grass seeds sprayed, promptly returning 'green' to nature," said Gu Chaosuo, chief engineer of the pre-station Section 6 project of the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan line under China Railway Construction Corporation's 14th Bureau.

At the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway construction site, touching scenes of porpoises at play often appeared.

The Xinjiang West Branch Grand Bridge is located upstream of the "Porpoise Bay" in the Kangshan Dike waters of the Yugan section of Poyang Lake. With tall piers and wide waters, multiple continuous girders connect end to end, creating a spectacular and majestic sight. Cheng Lianglin, project manager of the third sub-section of Section 5 of the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan line under China Railway Construction Corporation's 25th Bureau, said that whenever people on the bridge see porpoises playing in the lake, everyone is especially happy: "This proves our work has been done properly and construction has not affected the surrounding water quality."

A Path of Innovation

A batch of new techniques and technologies, such as "accumulated sliding," karst frame bridges and simplified standardized overhead contact systems, have been applied

The Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway is a "path of ecology" and also a "path of innovation."

Look at Nanchang East Station: the station building is themed "rosy clouds and wild ducks flying together, auspiciousness blooming," with the main structure resembling a soaring "rosy cloud duck," its flying wings full of dynamism.

The brilliant and dynamic design posed challenges for construction. The roof of Nanchang East Station consists of a "triple-arch" steel truss covering an area of 58,000 square meters and weighing about 14,000 tons. How should such an irregular, large-volume steel structure roof be built? Xiong Yifei, chief engineer of the Nanchang East Station project under China Railway Construction Engineering Group, explained that after comparing and validating multiple schemes, the construction team innovatively adopted the "accumulated sliding" technique: the 14 steel trusses of the roof were divided into 190 assembly units, assembled into a whole on the east side of the station, and then pushed westward along rails in three stages into position.

On February 18, 2023, at the command of the directors, the first section—four steel trusses 220 meters long, 86 meters wide and weighing more than 2,400 tons—began to slide. Under the command of an intelligent system, 23 hydraulic pushers with a thrust of 60 tons each exerted force simultaneously to move the components forward, with precision errors at different positions not exceeding 5 centimeters.

"The overall synchronous sliding technology for the triple-arch roof steel structure is the first of its kind among railway station building projects nationwide," said Yu Xuehua, director of the building management office of the Nanchang Railway Construction Command. This technique combines safety and economy. On April 10, 2023, the steel structure of the Nanchang East Station roof slid smoothly into place, completing the work a month and a half ahead of schedule.

Now look at the Yangdunzhou Changjiang Grand Bridge. Located in an area of strong karst development, its borehole cavity encounter rate is 96.6%. During construction, the project department found that the underground was mostly bead-string karst caves, with the deepest reaching 115 meters.

Under such geological conditions, drilling holes and forming piles is extremely difficult. "Bead-string karst caves mean the underground caves are interconnected," said Zhou Yuchao, chief engineer of Section 3 of the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan line under China Railway Construction Bridge Engineering Bureau. Generally, bridges use a pile-column structure: box girders rest on piers, piers on pile caps, and pile caps on pile foundations. Facing strongly karst-developed geology, pile foundation construction requires drilling more than 100 meters underground to reach intact hard rock. Moreover, all karst caves must be filled, requiring a huge volume of concrete for pile pouring; drilling and forming piles at special piers and abutments can take one to two years.

To reduce construction difficulty and ensure the schedule, the construction unit optimized the design, changing the pile-column structure to a frame structure, creating a distinctive karst frame bridge. "Walking on snow, you easily leave footprints with your feet, but not with skis. By the same principle, compared with a pile-column structure, a frame structure has a larger load-bearing area, better ensuring bridge stability while keeping the schedule controllable," Zhou Yuchao said.

Finally, look at the "four-electric" construction of the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway. This is China's second high-speed railway, after the Yancheng-Nantong High-Speed Railway, to adopt the simplified standardized overhead contact system technical scheme featuring "unified parameters, simplified structures and integrated parts."

The high-speed railway overhead contact system is the power transmission line erected above the railway; the current that high-speed trains rely on is delivered through the overhead contact system above the locomotive. "With the traditional scheme, the overhead contact system has many types of parts and complex structures," said Liao Junhua, Party Working Committee secretary of the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan project department of China Railway Construction Electrification Bureau. The project department innovatively applied an automated production line independently developed in China to precisely pre-assemble parts in advance and then install them on site in one go. Compared with the traditional model, the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway's overhead contact system uses one-third fewer installation parts, improves installation efficiency by one-third and reduces operating costs by one-third.

Moreover, all electrical equipment stations and kiosks along the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway have achieved unattended operation by installing intelligent inspection robots and other means. "All equipment can be controlled remotely, and smart cameras can monitor equipment status in real time, saving a great deal of staffing for on-site duty," Liao Junhua said.

A Path of Development

Will link up a golden tourism route, boost rural revitalization and drive industrial development

According to the plan, the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway will officially open for operation by the end of this year. By then, it will bring many benefits to the economic and social development of the areas along the route.

Careful planning links up a golden tourism route.

After the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway opens, rail travel time from Nanchang to Huangshan will shrink from two and a half hours to just over one hour, and Jingdezhen and Huangshan will be reachable from each other in half an hour. As trains speed along, they connect famous cities, towns, lakes and mountains in Jiangxi and Anhui, forming a world-class golden tourism route. "We expect the new line will greatly boost tourism and drive economic development along the route," Zhang Handong said.

Previously, tourists heading to Yaoli Ancient Town had to take a bus from downtown Jingdezhen to Fuliang County, then a scheduled bus from the Fuliang bus station to Yaoli Ancient Town, a journey of more than two and a half hours. After the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway opens, it will take just over ten minutes from Jingdezhen North Station to Fuliang East Station, and only a few minutes by car to reach Yaoli Ancient Town. "In the first quarter of this year, the Yaoli Scenic Area received 35,000 visitors. After the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway opens, visitor numbers will rise significantly," said Wu Jinhua, stationmaster of Fuliang East Station.

Opening up space to boost rural revitalization.

Stepping out of Yugan High-Speed Railway Station, one sees green everywhere and endless rice fields—this is Yanhe Village in Yugan County, Jiangxi. "The high-speed rail reaches our doorstep; it takes only 15 minutes from Nanchang. The village's pick-your-own orchards will have more secure business," said Liu Shijun, head of the Yugan Jinnongcang Agricultural Products Cooperative.

Currently, Yanhe Village also plans to open a specialty store at Yugan High-Speed Railway Station to showcase local agricultural products such as Yugan chili peppers, Baima squabs, Wuni red-feathered ducks, Dahu crabs, Ruihong snakehead fish, ecological loaches and Chenyang Gordon euryale seeds. "Once the railway artery is open, mountain goods will have more channels into the cities," said Lian Cheng, first secretary stationed in Yanhe Village by Nanchang Railway.

Boosting transport capacity to drive industrial development.

"I often go to Hangzhou to buy goods. I used to travel by car; with high-speed rail it will be much more convenient and faster," said Yuan Jianghua, a self-employed clothing business owner in Yugan County.

"I've always wanted to do business in Anhui. After the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway opens, travel time between Jingdezhen and Anhui will be greatly shortened," said Cao Yihe, a ceramics business owner in Jingdezhen, looking forward to the day when Jingdezhen's porcelain culture will continue to go global on the "east wind" of high-speed rail.

It is understood that joint commissioning and testing follows static acceptance of the project and uses inspection trains, comprehensive inspection trains, test EMUs and related testing equipment for comprehensive testing. After joint commissioning and testing is completed, the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan High-Speed Railway will enter the trial operation stage, preparing for official opening.