Slow trains are fast revitalizing China's remote regions

BEIJING, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Passengers aboard the slow-speed train service in the mountainous regions of southwest China have long been familiar with the cheeps, oinks, quacks and baas of their animal companions.

Chicks can sometimes be spied in baskets, piglets can be seen running ahead of harried train attendants and owners, and ducks poke their little heads out of bags to quack.

Passengers on the 5633/5634 trains, which run through the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southwest China's mountainous Sichuan Province, see trains as the most cost-effective and reliable way to travel to sell their livestock and other farming produce to the world outside of the mountains.

Liu Wei knows all too well that trains mean more than just transport. The 46-year-old conductor has seen how people benefit from the 5633/5634 trains, which began service in the early 1970s.

When he was a child, Liu took a train to school. His mother would carry a bag of tomatoes and apples on her back to sell in Ganluo, a county in the prefecture.

"Now when I see children carrying schoolbags on the train, I think of myself. And when I see old people, I think of my mother," said Liu.

The trains have helped people shake off poverty and embrace better lives. They help people send goods to markets, children to schools, and sick people to better healthcare facilities. Railway authorities have devoted efforts to turn the slow trains into "rural markets" and set up poverty-alleviation shops in stations to help people in poor areas emerge from poverty.

Liu recalled that some villagers from the Yi ethnic group included "manche," or slow train, in their children's names to celebrate the service.

As bullet trains zoom through stations in many parts of China, the carriage-boxcar cabins of the seemingly outdated, rumbling trains have continued to serve residents of remote areas with stable ticket prices and services.

Though home to the world's most developed high-speed railway network, China still regularly operates 81 slow train services like Liu's. The services cover 35 ethnic minority-populated regions, transporting some 12 million people annually at an average cost of approximately 1 cent per km.

China aims to extend its total length of operational high-speed railways to around 50,000 km by 2025, up from 37,900 km at the end of 2020. In the meantime, the national railway operator has pledged to guarantee investment in slow trains and related stations to keep trips safe and comfortable.

A video posted by the People's Daily showing animals on slow-speed trains has been viewed over 5.8 million times on China's social media platform Sina Weibo.

While many said they thought it would be fun to travel with the animals, many others were uncertain how such cheap services could be sustained for decades given the fact that Liu's train has not raised its fares for 26 years.

"What maximizes the interests of the people? This is it!" wrote Weibo user liuzhang70.