title: Animals in space

text: Toyohiro Akiyama, a Japanese journalist, carried Japanese tree frogs with him during his trip to the "Mir" space station in December 1990. Other biological experiments aboard Mir involved quail eggs.


title: Animals in space

text: Japan launched its first animals, a species of newt, into space on 18 March 1995 aboard the Space Flyer Unit.


title: Animals in space

text: During the 1990s the U.S. carried crickets, mice, rats, frogs, newts, fruit flies, snails, carp, medaka (rice fish), oyster toadfish, sea urchins, swordtail fish, gypsy moth eggs, stick insect eggs, brine shrimp ("Artemia salina"), quail eggs, and jellyfish aboard Space Shuttles.


title: Animals in space

text: The last flight of "Columbia" in 2003 carried silkworms, garden orb spiders, carpenter bees, harvester ants, and Japanese killifish (medaka). Nematodes ("C. elegans") from one experiment were found still alive in the debris after the Space Shuttle "Columbia" disaster.


title: Animals in space

text: "C. elegans" are also part of experiments aboard the International Space Station as well as research using quail eggs.


title: Animals in space

text: Earlier Space Shuttle missions included grade school, junior high and high school projects; some of these included ants, stick insect eggs and brine shrimp cysts. Other science missions included gypsy moth eggs.


title: Animals in space

text: On 12 July 2006, Bigelow Aerospace launched their "Genesis I" inflatable space module, containing many small items such as toys and simple experiments chosen by company employees that would be observed via camera. These items included insects, perhaps making it the first private flight to launch animals into space. Included were Madagascar hissing cockroaches and Mexican jumping beans — seeds containing live larvae of the moth "Cydia saltitans". On 28 June 2007, Bigelow launched "Genesis II", a near-twin to "Genesis I". This spacecraft also carried Madagascar hissing cockroaches and added South African flat rock scorpions ("Hadogenes troglodytes") and seed-harvester ants ("Pogonomyrmex californicus").


title: Animals in space

text: In September 2007, during the European Space Agency's FOTON-M3 mission, tardigrades, also known as water-bears, were able to survive 10 days of exposure to open-space with only their natural protection.


title: Animals in space

text: On the same mission, a number of cockroaches were carried inside a sealed container and at least one of the females conceived during the mission. After they were returned to Earth, the one named Nadezhda became the first Earth creature to produce young that had been conceived in space.


title: Animals in space

text: On 15 March 2009, during the countdown of the STS-119, a free-tailed bat was seen clinging to the fuel tank. NASA observers believed the bat would fly off once the Shuttle started to launch, but it did not. Upon analyzing the images, a wildlife expert who provided support to the center said it likely had a broken left wing and some problem with its right shoulder or wrist. The animal most likely perished quickly during "Discovery"s climb into orbit.


title: Animals in space

text: In November 2009, STS-129 took painted lady and monarch butterfly larvae into space for a school experiment as well as thousands of "C. elegans" roundworms for long-term weight loss studies.


title: Animals in space

text: In May 2011, the last flight of (STS-134) carried two golden orb spiders, named Gladys and Esmeralda, as well as a fruit fly colony as their food source in order to study the effects of microgravity on spiders' behavior. Tardigrades and extremophiles were also sent into orbit.


title: Animals in space

text: In November 2011, the Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment on the Fobos-Grunt mission planned to carry tardigrades to Mars and back; however, the mission failed to leave Earth orbit.


title: Animals in space

text: In October 2012, 32 medaka fish were delivered to the International Space Station by Soyuz TMA-06M for the new Aquatic Habitat in the Kibo module.


title: Animals in space

text: On 28 January 2013, Iranian news agencies reported that Iran sent a monkey in a "Pishgam" rocket to a height of and retrieved a "shipment". Later Iran's space research website uploaded an 18-minute video. The video was uploaded later on YouTube.


title: Animals in space

text: On 3 February 2013, on the 31st anniversary of its revolution, Iran became the latest country to launch animals into space. The animals (a mouse, two turtles and some worms) were launched on top of the Kavoshgar 3 rocket and returned alive to Earth.


title: Animals in space

text: On 19 July 2014, Russia announced that they launched their Foton-M4 satellite into low Earth orbit (575 kilometers) with one male and four female geckos (possibly gold dust day geckos) as the payload. This was an effort to study the effects of microgravity on reproductive habits of reptiles. On 24 July 2014, it was announced that Russia had lost control of the Foton-M4 satellite, leaving only two months to restore contact before the geckos' food supply was exhausted. Control of the satellite was subsequently restored on 28 July 2014. On 1 September 2014 Russia confirmed the death of all five geckos, stating that their mummified bodies seem to indicate they froze to death. Russia is said to have appointed an emergency commission to investigate the animals' deaths.


title: Animals in space

text: On 23 September 2014, SpaceX CRS-4 mission delivered 20 mice to live on the ISS for study of the long-term effects of microgravity on the rodents. This was the first use of the Rodent Research Hardware System.


title: Animals in space

text: On 14 April 2015, the SpaceX CRS-6 delivered 20 C57BL/6NTAC mice to live on the ISS for evaluating microgravity as the extreme opposite of a healthy active lifestyle. In the absence of gravity, astronauts are subject to a decrease in muscle, bone, and tendon mass. "Although, we're not out to treat couch potatoes," states head Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research (NIBR) scientist on the project Dr. Sam Cadena, "we're hoping that these experiments will help us to better understand muscle loss in populations where physical activity in any form is not an option; e.g., in the frail elderly or those subjected to bed rest or immobilization due to surgery or chronic disease."


title: Animals in space

text: On 8 April 2016, Rodent Research 3 delivered 20 mice on SpaceX CRS-8. The experiment sponsored by Eli Lilly and Co. was a study of myostatin inhibition for the prevention of skeletal and muscle atrophy and weakness. Mice are known to have rapid loss of muscle and bone mass after as little as 12 days of space flight exposure. The mice were euthanized and dissected on the station and then frozen for eventual return to Earth for further study.


title: Animals in space

text: On 29 June 2018, a SpaceX Dragon spaceship blasted off from Florida carrying 20 mice. The rodent crew arrived at the ISS on 2 July 2018. Their record-breaking journey – this was the longest mice have been off the planet – was part of a study on how Earth-dwellers' physiology and sleep schedules responded to the stress of being in space.


title: Animals in space

text: The Chinese lunar lander Chang'e 4 carries a 3 kg sealed container with seeds and insect eggs to test whether plants and insects could hatch and grow together in synergy. The experiment includes six types of organisms: cottonseed, potato, rapeseed, "Arabidopsis thaliana" (a flowering plant), as well as yeast and fruit fly eggs. If the eggs hatch, the larvae would produce carbon dioxide, while the germinated plants would release oxygen through photosynthesis. A miniature camera is imaging the growth.


title: Animals in space

text: On June 3, 2021, SpaceX CRS-22 launched tardigrades (water bears) and Hawaiian bobtail squid to the ISS. The squid were launched as hatchlings and will be studied to see if they can incorporate their symbiotic bacteria into their light organ while in space.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: The high-speed rail (HSR) network in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is the world's longest and most extensively used – with a total length of 40,000 kilometers by the end of 2021. The HSR network encompasses newly built rail lines with a design speed of . China's HSR accounts for two-thirds of the world's total high-speed railway networks. Almost all HSR trains, track and service are owned and operated by the China Railway Corporation under the brand China Railway High-speed (CRH).


title: High-speed rail in China

text: High-speed rail developed rapidly in China since the mid-2000s. CRH was introduced in April 2007 and the Beijing-Tianjin intercity rail, which opened in August 2008, was the first passenger dedicated HSR line. Currently, the HSR extends to all provincial-level administrative divisions and Hong Kong SAR, with the exception of Macau SAR. The HSR network reached just under in total length by the end of 2020. The HSR building boom continues with the HSR network set to reach in 2035.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: China's early high-speed trains were imported or built under technology transfer agreements with foreign train-makers including Alstom, Siemens, Bombardier and Kawasaki Heavy Industries. After the initial technological support, Chinese engineers have since re-designed internal train components and have built and produced indigenous trains manufactured by the state-owned CRRC Corporation, especially on newer lines. China's high-speed rail is competitive with both road and air transport when it comes to distances of up to 1200 kilometers. It is cost competitive with bus and airfares which has helped it to attract more than 1.7 billion passengers annually across all income groups.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: A 2019 World Bank study estimated the rate of economic return of China's high-speed rail network to be at 8 percent, which is well above the opportunity cost of capital in China for major long term infrastructure investments. The study also noted a range of benefits which included shortened travel times, improved safety and better facilitation of tourism, labor and mobility, as well as reducing highway congestion, accidents and greenhouse emissions as some automobile travellers switch from car use to rail. The institution also found "a broad range of travelers of different income levels choose HSR for its comfort, convenience, safety and punctuality."


title: High-speed rail in China

text: There were initial concerns over the high-speed rail's cost, debt and profitability. However, a Paulson Institute research had estimated that the net benefit of the high-speed rail to the Chinese economy to be approximately $378 billion and the annual return on investment at 6.5%. In 2021, China's state railway company have vowed to prioritise in reforms that aims to improve the productivity and efficiency of its high speed rail network, rather than focus on the expansion of track mileage.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Notable HSR lines in China include the Beijing–Guangzhou high-speed railway which at is the world's longest HSR line in operation, and the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway with the world's fastest operating conventional train services. The Shanghai Maglev is the world's first high-speed commercial magnetic levitation ("maglev") line, whose trains run on non-conventional track and reach a top speed of . In 2020, China started testing a maglev prototype train that runs at and planned a 2025 launch date.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: High-speed rail in China is officially defined as "newly-built passenger-dedicated rail lines designed for electrical multiple unit (EMU) train sets traveling at not less than (including lines with reserved capacity for upgrade to the 250 km/h standard) on which initial service operate at not less than ." EMU train sets have no more than 16 railcars with axle load not greater than 17 tonnes and service interval of not less than three minutes.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Thus, high-speed rail service in China requires high-speed EMU train sets to be providing passenger service on high speed rail lines at speeds of not less than . EMU trains operating on non-high speed track or otherwise but at speeds below are not considered high-speed rail. Certain mixed use freight and passenger rail lines, that can be upgraded for train speeds of , with current passenger service of at least , are also considered high-speed rail.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: In common parlance, high-speed train service in China generally refers to G-, D- and C-class passenger train service.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: High-speed ridership statistics in China are often reported as the number of passengers carried by high-speed EMU train sets, and such figures typically include passengers on EMU trains operating on non-high speed track or at service speeds below 200 km/h.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: The earliest example of higher-speed commercial train service in China was the Asia Express, a luxury passenger train that operated in Japanese-controlled Manchuria from 1934 to 1943. The steam-powered train, which ran on the South Manchuria Railway from Dalian to Xinjing (Changchun), had a top commercial speed of and a test speed of . It was faster than the fastest trains in Japan at the time. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, this train model was renamed the SL-7 and was used by the Chinese Minister of Railways. China's national transportation network has grown by more than 120,000 km of railways, 130,000 km of expressways, 3.7 million km of roads, and 740,000 km of coastal quay lines since 1990.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: State planning for China's current high-speed railway network began in the early 1990s under a strong leadership of Deng Xiaoping who set up what is currently called a "high-speed rail dream" after his visit to Japan in 1978, where he was deeply impressed by the world's first high speed rail, Shinkansen. In December 1990, the Ministry of Railways (MOR) submitted to the National People's Congress a proposal to build a high-speed railway between Beijing and Shanghai. At the time, the Beijing–Shanghai Railway was already at capacity, and the proposal was jointly studied by the Science & Technology Commission, State Planning Commission, State Economic & Trade Commission, and the MOR. In December 1994, the State Council commissioned a feasibility study for the line.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Policy planners debated the necessity and economic viability of high-speed rail service. Supporters argued that high-speed rail would boost future economic growth. Opponents noted that high-speed rail in other countries were expensive and mostly unprofitable. Overcrowding on existing rail lines, they said, could be solved by expanding capacity through higher speed and frequency of service. In 1995, Premier Li Peng announced that preparatory work on the Beijing Shanghai HSR would begin in the 9th Five Year Plan (1996–2000), but construction was not scheduled until the first decade of the 21st century.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: In 1993, commercial train service in China averaged only and was steadily losing market share to airline and highway travel on the country's expanding network of expressways. The MOR focused modernization efforts on increasing the service speed and capacity on existing lines through double-tracking, electrification, improving grade (through tunnels and bridges), reducing turn curvature and installing continuous welded rail. Through five rounds of "Speed-Up" campaigns in April 1997, October 1998, October 2000, November 2001, and April 2004, passenger service on of existing tracks was upgraded to reach sub-high speeds of .


title: High-speed rail in China

text: A notable example is the Guangshen–Shenzhen railway, which in December 1994 became the first line in China to offer sub-high-speed service of using domestically produced DF-class diesel locomotives. The line was electrified in 1998, and Swedish-made X 2000 trains increased service speed to . After the completion of a third track in 2000 and a fourth in 2007, the line became the first in China to run high-speed passenger and freight service on separate tracks.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: The completion of the sixth round of the "Speed-Up" Campaign in April 2007 brought HSR service to more existing lines: capable of train service and capable of . In all, travel speed increased on , or one-fifth, of the national rail network, and the average speed of passenger trains improved to . The introduction of more non-stop service between large cities also helped to reduce travel time. The non-stop express train from Beijing to Fuzhou shortened travel time from 33.5 to less than 20 hours.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: In addition to track and scheduling improvements, the MOR also deployed faster CRH series trains. During the Sixth Railway Speed Up Campaign, 52 CRH trainsets (CRH1, CRH2 and CRH5) entered into operation. The new trains reduced travel time between Beijing and Shanghai by two hours to just under 10 hours. Some 295 stations have been built or renovated to allow high-speed trains.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: The development of the HSR network in China was initially delayed by a debate over the type of track technology to be used. In June 1998, at a State Council meeting with the Chinese Academies of Sciences and Engineering, Premier Zhu Rongji asked whether the high-speed railway between Beijing and Shanghai still being planned could use maglev technology. At the time, planners were divided between using high-speed trains with wheels that run on conventional standard gauge tracks or magnetic levitation trains that run on special maglev tracks for a new national high-speed rail network.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Maglev received a big boost in 2000 when the Shanghai Municipal Government agreed to purchase a turnkey TransRapid train system from Germany for the rail link connecting Shanghai Pudong International Airport and the city. In 2004, the Shanghai Maglev Train became the world's first commercially operated high-speed maglev. It remains the fastest commercial train in the world with peak speeds of and makes the trip in less than 7.5 minutes.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Despite unmatched advantage in speed, the maglev has not gained widespread use in China's high-speed rail network due to high cost, German refusal to share technology and concerns about safety. The price tag of the Shanghai Maglev was believed to be $1.3 billion and was partially financed by the German government. The refusal of the Transrapid Consortium to share technology and source production in China made large-scale maglev production much more costly than high-speed train technology for conventional lines. Finally, residents living along the proposed maglev route have raised health concerns about noise and electromagnetic radiation emitted by the trains, despite an environmental assessment by the Shanghai Academy of Environmental Sciences saying the line was safe. These concerns have prevented the construction of the proposed extension of the maglev to Hangzhou. Even the more modest plan to extend the maglev to Shanghai's other airport, Hongqiao, has stalled. Instead, a conventional subway line was built to connect the two airports, and a conventional high-speed rail line was built between Shanghai and Hangzhou.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: While maglev was drawing attention to Shanghai, conventional track HSR technology was being tested on the newly completed Qinhuangdao-Shenyang Passenger Railway. This standard gauge, dual-track, electrified line was built between 1999 and 2003. In June 2002, a domestically made DJF2 train set a record of on the track. The China Star (DJJ2) train followed the same September with a new record of . The line supports commercial train service at speeds of , and has become a segment of the rail corridor between Beijing and Northeast China. The Qinhuangdao-Shenyang Line showed the greater compatibility of HSR on conventional track with the rest of China's standard gauge rail network.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: In 2004, the State Council in its "Mid-to-Long Term Railway Development Plan", adopted conventional track HSR technology over maglev for the Beijing–Shanghai High Speed Railway and three other north–south high-speed rail lines. This decision ended the debate and cleared the way for rapid construction of standard gauge, passenger dedicated HSR lines in China.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Despite setting speed records on test tracks, the DJJ2, DJF2 and other domestically produced high-speed trains were insufficiently reliable for commercial operation. The State Council turned to advanced technology abroad but made clear in directives that China's HSR expansion cannot only benefit foreign economies. China's expansion must also be used to develop its own high-speed train building capacity through technology transfers. The State Council, MOR and state-owned train builders, the China North Car (CNR) and China South Car (CSR) used China's large market and competition among foreign train-makers to force technology transfers of foreign high speed rail technology, as the DJJ2 and DJF2 high speed trains were not reliable enough before the technology transfers, which would later allow the Chinese government through CRRC to make the more reliable Fuxing Hao and Hexie Hao trains. The CRH380 series(or family) of trains, was initially built with direct cooperation (or help) from foreign trainmakers. But newer Trainsets are based on transferred technology, just like the Hexie and Fuxing Hao.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: In 2003, the MOR was believed to favor Japan's Shinkansen technology, especially the 700 series. The Japanese government touted the 40-year track record of the Shinkansen and offered favorable financing. A Japanese report envisioned a winner-take all scenario in which the winning technology provider would supply China's trains for over of high-speed rail. However, Chinese citizens angry with Japan's denial of World War II atrocities organized a web campaign to oppose the awarding of HSR contracts to Japanese companies. The protests gathered over a million signatures and politicized the issue. The MOR delayed the decision, broadened the bidding and adopted a diversified approach to adopting foreign high-speed train technology.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: In June 2004, the MOR solicited bids to make 200 high-speed train sets that can run . Alstom of France, Siemens of Germany, Bombardier Transportation based in Germany and a Japanese consortium led by Kawasaki all submitted bids. With the exception of Siemens which refused to lower its demand of CN¥350 million per train set and €390 million for the technology transfer, the other three were all awarded portions of the contract. All had to adapt their HSR train-sets to China's own common standard and assemble units through local joint ventures (JV) or cooperate with Chinese manufacturers. Bombardier, through its joint venture with CSR's Sifang Locomotive and Rolling Stock Co (CSR Sifang), Bombardier Sifang (Qingdao) Transportation Ltd (BST). won an order for 40 eight-car train sets based on Bombardier's Regina design. These trains, designated CRH1A, were delivered in 2006. Kawasaki won an order for 60 train sets based on its E2 Series Shinkansen for ¥9.3 billion. Of the 60 train sets, three were directly delivered from Nagoya, Japan, six were kits assembled at CSR Sifang Locomotive & Rolling Stock, and the remaining 51 were made in China using transferred technology with domestic and imported parts. They are known as CRH2A. Alstom also won an order for 60 train sets based on the New Pendolino developed by Alstom-Ferroviaria in Italy. The order had a similar delivery structure with three shipped directly from Savigliano along with six kits assembled by CNR's CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles, and the rest locally made with transferred technology and some imported parts. Trains with Alstom technology carry the CRH5 designation.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: The following year, Siemens reshuffled its bidding team, lowered prices, joined the bidding for trains and won a 60-train set order. It supplied the technology for the CRH3C, based on the ICE3 (class 403) design, to CNR's Tangshan Railway Vehicle Co. Ltd. The transferred technology includes assembly, body, bogie, traction current transforming, traction transformers, traction motors, traction control, brake systems, and train control networks.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Achieving indigenous high-speed rail technology has been a major goal of Chinese state planners. Chinese train-makers, after receiving transferred foreign technology, have been able to achieve a considerable degree of self-sufficiency in making the next generation of high-speed trains by developing indigenous capability to produce key parts and improving upon foreign designs.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Examples of technology transfer include Mitsubishi Electric’s MT205 traction motor and ATM9 transformer to CSR Zhuzhou Electric, Hitachi’s YJ92A traction motor and Alstom’s YJ87A Traction motor to CNR Yongji Electric, Siemens’ TSG series pantograph to Zhuzhou Gofront Electric. Most of the components of the CRH trains manufactured by Chinese companies were from local suppliers, with only a few parts imported.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: For foreign train-makers, technology transfer is an important part of gaining market access in China. Bombardier, the first foreign train-maker to form a joint venture in China, has been sharing technology for the manufacture of railway passenger cars and rolling stock since 1998. Zhang Jianwei, President and Chief Country Representative of Bombardier China, stated that in a 2009 interview, “Whatever technology Bombardier has, whatever the China market needs, there is no need to ask. Bombardier transfers advanced and mature technology to China, which we do not treat as an experimental market.” Unlike other series which have imported prototypes, all CRH1 trains have been assembled at Bombardier's joint-venture with CSR, Bombardier Sifang in Qingdao.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Kawasaki's cooperation with CSR did not last as long. Within two years of cooperation with Kawasaki to produce 60 CRH2A sets, CSR began in 2008 to build CRH2B, CRH2C and CRH2E models at its Sifang plant independently without assistance from Kawasaki. According to CSR president Zhang Chenghong, CSR "made the bold move of forming a systemic development platform for high-speed locomotives and further upgrading its design and manufacturing technology. Later, we began to independently develop high-speed CRH trains with a maximum velocity of 300–350 kilometers per hour, which eventually rolled off the production line in December 2007." Since then, CSR has ended its cooperation with Kawasaki. Kawasaki challenged China's high-speed rail project for patent theft, but backed off the effort.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Between June and September 2005, the MOR launched bidding for high-speed trains with a top speed of , as most of the main high-speed rail lines were designed for top speeds of 350 km/h or higher. Along with CRH3C, produced by Siemens and CNR Tangshan, CSR Sifang bid 60 sets of CRH2C.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: In 2007, travel time from Beijing to Shanghai was about 10 hours at a top speed of on the upgraded Beijing–Shanghai Railway. To increase transport capacity, the MOR ordered 70 16-car trainsets from CSR Sifang and BST, including 10 sets of CRH1B and 20 sets of CRH2B seating trains, 20 sets of CRH1E and 20 sets of CRH2E sleeper trains.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Construction of the high-speed railway between Beijing and Shanghai, the world's first high-speed rail with a designed speed of , began on April 18, 2008. In the same year, the Ministry of Science and the MOR agreed to a joint action plan for the indigenous innovation of high-speed trains in China. The MOR then launched the CRH1-350 (Bombardier and BST, designated as CRH380D), CRH2-350 (CSR, designated as CRH380A/AL), and CRH3-350 (CNR and Siemens, designated as CRH380B/BL & CRH380CL), to develop a new generation of CRH trains with a top operation speed of 380 km/h. A total of 400 new generation trains were ordered. The CRH380A/AL, the first indigenous high-speed train of the CRH series, entered service on the Shanghai-Hangzhou High-Speed Railway on October 26, 2010.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: On October 19, 2010, the MOR announced the beginning of research and development of "super-speed" railway technology, which would increase the maximum speed of trains to over .


title: High-speed rail in China

text: After committing to conventional-track high-speed rail in 2006, the state embarked on an ambitious campaign to build passenger-dedicated high-speed rail lines, which accounted for a large part of the government's growing budget for rail construction. Total investment in new rail lines grew from $14 billion in 2004 to $22.7 and $26.2 billion in 2006 and 2007. In response to the global economic recession, the government accelerated the pace of HSR expansion to stimulate economic growth. Total investments in new rail lines including HSR reached $49.4 billion in 2008 and $88 billion in 2009. In all, the state planned to spend $300 billion to build a HSR network by 2020.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: As of 2007, the Qinhuangdao-Shenyang high-speed railway, which carried trains at top speed of along the Liaoxi Corridor in the Northeast, was the only passenger-dedicated HSR line (PDL) in China, but that would soon change as the country embarked on a high-speed railway construction boom.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Higher-speed express train service allowed more trains to share the tracks and improved rail transport capacity. But high-speed trains often have to share tracks with slower, heavy freight trains – in some cases with as little as 5 minutes headway. To attain higher speeds and transport capacity, planners began to propose a passenger-dedicated HSR network on a grand scale. Initiated by MOR's 2004 "Mid-to-Long Term Railway Network Plan", a national grid composed of eight high-speed rail corridors, four running north–south and four going east–west, was to be constructed. The envisioned network, together with upgraded existing lines, would total in length. Most of the new lines follow the routes of existing trunk lines and are designated for passenger travel only. They became known as passenger-designated lines (PDLs). Several sections of the national grid, especially along the southeast coastal corridor, were built to link cities that had no previous rail connections. Those sections will carry a mix of passenger and freight. High-speed trains on PDLs can generally reach . On mixed-use HSR lines, passenger train service can attain peak speeds of . The earliest PDLs built were sections of the corridors that connected large cities in the same region. On April 19, 2008, Hefei–Nanjing PDL in the East opened with a top-speed of . On August 1, 2008, the Beijing–Tianjin intercity railway opened in time for the 2008 Summer Olympics. This line between northern China's two largest cities, was the first in the country to accommodate commercial trains with top speed of and featured the CRH2C and CRH3C train sets. This ambitious national grid project was planned to be built by 2020, but the government's stimulus has expedited time-tables considerably for many of the lines.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: The Wuhan–Guangzhou high-speed railway (Wuguang PDL), which opened on December 26, 2009, was the country's first cross-regional high-speed rail line. With a total length of and capacity to accommodate trains traveling at , the Wuguang PDL set a world record for the fastest commercial train service with average trip speed of . Train travel between central and southern China’s largest cities, Wuhan and Guangzhou, was reduced to just over three hours.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: On October 26, 2010, China opened its 15th high-speed rail, the Shanghai–Hangzhou line, and unveiled the CRH380A trainset manufactured by CSR Sifang started regular service. The Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway, the second major cross-regional line, opened in June 2011 and was the first line designed with a top speed of in commercial service.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: By January 2011, China had the world's longest high-speed rail network with about of routes capable for at least running in service including of rail lines with top speeds of . The MOR reportedly committed investment of ¥709.1 billion (US$107.9 billion) in railway construction in 2010 and would invest ¥700 billion (US$106 billion) in 2011 on 70 railway projects, including 15 high-speed rail projects. Some of new high-speed railways would be opened, and by the end of 2011, China would have of railways capable of carrying trains at speeds of at least .


title: High-speed rail in China

text: In February 2011, Railway Minister Liu Zhijun, a key proponent of HSR expansion in China, was removed from office on charges of corruption. "The Economist" estimates Liu accepted ¥1 billion of bribes ($152 million) in connection with railway construction projects. Investigators found evidence that another ¥187 million ($28.5 million) was misappropriated from the $33 billion Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway in 2010.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Another top official in the Railways Ministry, Zhang Shuguang, was also sacked for corruption. Zhang was estimated to have misappropriated to his personal overseas accounts the equivalent of $2.8 billion.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: After the political shake-up, concerns about HSR safety, high ticket prices, financial sustainability and environmental impact received greater scrutiny in the Chinese press.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: In April 2011, the new Minister of Railways Sheng Guangzu said that due to corruption, safety may have been compromised on some construction projects and completion dates may have to be pushed back. Sheng announced that all trains in the high-speed rail network would operate at a maximum speed of beginning on July 1, 2011. This was in response to concerns over safety, low ridership due to high ticket prices, and high energy usage. On June 13, 2011, the MOR clarified in a press conference that the speed reduction was not due to safety concerns but to offer more affordable tickets for trains at and increase ridership. Higher-speed train travel uses greater energy and imposes more wear on expensive machinery. Railway officials lowered the top speed of trains on most lines that were running at to . Trains on the Beijing-Tianjin high-speed line and a few other inter-city lines remained at 350 km/h.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: In May 2011, China's Environmental Protection Ministry ordered the halting of construction and operation of two high-speed lines that failed to pass environmental impact tests. In June, the MOR maintained that high-speed rail construction was not slowing down. The CRH380A trainsets on the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway could reach a top operational speed of but were limited to 300 km/h.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Under political and public pressure, the National Audit Office (NAO) carried out an extensive investigation into the building quality of all high-speed rail lines. As of March 2011, no major quality defects had been found in the system. Foreign manufacturers involved in Shanghai-Beijing high-speed link reported that their contracts call for maximum operational speed of . From July 20, 2011, the frequency of train service from Jinan to Beijing and Tianjin was reduced due to low occupancy, which renewed concerns about demand and profitability for high-speed services. Service failures in the first month of operation drove passengers back to pre-existing slower rail service and air travel; airline ticket prices rebounded due to reduced competition.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: On July 23, 2011, two high-speed trains collided on the Ningbo–Taizhou–Wenzhou railway in Lucheng District of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. The accident occurred when one train traveling near Wenzhou was struck by lightning, lost power and stalled. Signals malfunctioned, causing another train to rear-end the stalled train. Several carriages derailed. State-run Chinese media confirmed 40 deaths, and at least 192 people hospitalised, including 12 who were severely injured. The Wenzhou train accident and the lack of accountability by railway officials caused a public uproar and heightened concerns about the safety and management of China's high-speed rail system. Quality and safety concerns also affected plans to export cheaper high-speed train technology to other countries.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Following the deadly crash, the Chinese government suspended new railway project approvals and launched safety checks on existing equipment. A commission was formed to investigate the accident with a directive to report its findings in September 2011. On August 10, 2011, the Chinese government announced that it was suspending approvals of any new high-speed rail lines pending the outcome of the investigation. The Minister of Railways announced further cuts in the speed of Chinese high-speed trains, with the speed of the second-tier 'D' trains reduced from to , and 200 km/h to 160 km/h on upgraded pre-existing lines. The speed of the remaining trains between Shanghai and Hangzhou was reduced to as of August 28, 2011. To stimulate ridership, on August 16, 2011 ticket prices on high-speed trains were reduced by five percent. From July to September, high-speed rail ridership in China fell by nearly 30 million to 151 million trips.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: In the first half of 2011, the MOR as a whole made a profit of ¥4.29 billion and carried a total debt burden of ¥2.09 trillion, equal to about 5% of China's GDP. Earnings from the more profitable freight lines helped to off-set losses by high-speed rail lines. As of years ending 2008, 2009 and 2010, the MOR's debt-to-asset ratio was respectively, 46.81%, 53.06% and 57.44%, and reached 58.58% by mid-year 2011. As of October 12, 2011, the MOR had issued ¥160 billion of debt for the year. But in the late summer, state banks began to cut back on lending to rail construction projects, which reduced funding for existing railway projects. An investigation of 23 railway construction companies in August 2011 revealed that 70% of existing projects had been slowed or halted mainly due to shortage of funding. Affected lines included Xiamen-Shenzhen, Nanning-Guangzhou, Guiyang-Guangzhou, Shijiazhuang-Wuhan, Tianjin-Baoding and Shanghai-Kunming high-speed rail lines. By October, work had halted on the construction of of track. New projects were put on hold and completion dates for existing projects, including the Tianjin-Baoding, Harbin-Jiamusi, Zhengzhou-Xuzhou and Hainan Ring (West), were pushed back. As of October 2011, the MOR was reportedly concentrating remaining resources on fewer high-speed rail lines and shifting emphasis to more economically viable coal transporting heavy rail.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: To ease the credit shortage facing rail construction, the Ministry of Finance announced tax cuts to interest earned on rail construction financing bonds and the State Council ordered state banks to renew lending to rail projects. In late October and November 2011, the MOR raised RMB 250 billion in fresh financing and construction resumed on several lines including the Tianjin-Baoding, Xiamen-Shenzhen and Shanghai-Kunming.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: By early 2012, the Chinese government renewed investments in high-speed rail to rejuvenate the slowing economy. Premier Wen Jiabao visited train manufacturers and gave a vote of confidence in the industry. Over the course of the year, the MOR's budget rose from $64.3 billion to $96.5 billion. Five new lines totaling in length entered operation between June 30 and December 31, including the Beijing-Wuhan section of the Beijing-Guangzhou line. By the end of 2012, the total length of high-speed rail tracks had reached , and ridership rebounded and exceeded levels prior to the Wenzhou crash. China's 1,580 high-speed trains were transporting 1.33 million passengers daily, about 25.7% of the overall passenger traffic. The Beijing–Tianjin, Shanghai–Nanjing, Beijing–Shanghai and Shanghai–Hangzhou lines reported breaking even financially The Shanghai-Nanjing line even reported to be operationally profitable, operating with a 380 million yuan net profit. However in 2013, only few lines had yet become profitable.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: On December 28, 2013, the total length of high-speed rail tracks nationally topped with the opening of the Xiamen–Shenzhen, Xian–Baoji, Chongqing−Lichuan high-speed railways as well as intercity lines in Hubei and Guangxi.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: In 2014, high-speed rail expansion gained speed with the opening of the Taiyuan–Xi'an, Hangzhou–Changsha, Lanzhou-Ürümqi, Guiyang-Guangzhou, Nanning-Guangzhou trunk lines and intercity lines around Wuhan, Chengdu, Qingdao and Zhengzhou. High-speed passenger rail service expanded to 28 provinces and regions. The number of high-speed train sets in operation grew from 1,277 pairs in June to 1,556.5 pairs in December.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: In response to a slowing economy, central planners approved a slew of new lines including Shangqiu-Hefei-Hangzhou, Zhengzhou-Wanzhou, Lianyungang-Zhenjiang, Linyi-Qufu, Harbin-Mudanjiang, Yinchuan-Xi'an, Datong-Zhangjiakou, and intercity lines in Zhejiang and Jiangxi.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: The government actively promoted the export of high-speed rail technology to countries including Mexico, Thailand, the United Kingdom, India, Russia and Turkey. To better compete with foreign trainmakers, the central authorities arranged for the merger of the country's two main high-speed train-makers, CSR and CNR, into CRRC.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: By 2015, six high speed rail lines, Beijing–Tianjin, Shanghai–Nanjing, Beijing–Shanghai, Shanghai–Hangzhou, Nanjing–Hangzhou and Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong report operational profitability. The Beijing–Shanghai is particularly profitable reporting a 6.6 billion yuan net profit.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: In 2016, with the near completion of the National 4+4 grid, a new "Mid-to-Long Term Railway Network" Plan was drafted. The plan envisions a larger 8+8 high speed rail grid serving the nation and expanded intercity lines for regional and commuter services for large metropolitan areas of China. The proposed completion date for the network is 2030.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Since 2017, with the introduction of the Fuxing series of trains, a number of lines have resumed 350km/h operations such as Beijing–Shanghai HSR, Beijing–Tianjin ICR, and Chengdu–Chongqing ICR.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: China's high-speed rail expansion is entirely managed, planned and financed by the Chinese government.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: On one hand, the demand of high-speed rail in China steadily increases over time. In 2012, the average occupancy rate of high-speed rails in China was 57%. This percentage increased to 65%, 69% and 72% in the year of 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively. As of February 2016, high-speed rails covered nearly 20,000 km. On the other hand, however, public concerns about the high-speed rail development have been raised from various perspectives.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: The safety issue that drew the attention of the public and the government was the Wenzhou train collision which happened on July 23, 2011, in which 40 people died, 172 were injured, and 54 related officials blamed and punished. However, according to The New York Times, the Chinese high-speed rail network is "one of the world’s safest transportation systems."


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Experts expressed concern of the network's operational efficiency. In 2016, Chinese railways carried almost 2 trillion ton-kilometers of freight and over 1 billion passenger-kilometer of passengers, making it one of the world's most intensively used freight and passenger railway networks in the world. However, the rail staff productivity upon railway track infrastructure index in China is less than 0.05, being the lowest among the countries with significant railway construction. The government also articulated the importance and urgency of assuring the capacity of railway staff, especially their familiarity with telecommunication and signaling testing in the official investigation of the Wenzhou train collision. In addition, it is hard to identify problems in the construction process, given the distribution resource planning system needed for rapid railway building and assembling. Suppliers and manufacturers blame each other for any problem detected in the trial operation, while tracking the construction process to every single detail is an almost impossible job for inspectors.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Critics both in China and abroad have questioned the necessity of having an expensive high-speed rail system in a largely developing country, where most workers cannot afford to pay a premium for faster travel. The government has justified the expensive undertaking as promoting a number of policy objectives. HSR provides fast, reliable and comfortable means of transporting large numbers of travelers in a densely populated country over long distances, which:


title: High-speed rail in China

text: One major concern of the high-speed rail network is the high amount of debt incurred. As of 2022, the China State Railway Group has had a debt of around $900 billion USD, according to "Nikkei". Conservative scholars and officials are worried that the indebted high-speed rail is further exacerbated by its unprofitability, operating at a daily loss of $24 million USD as of November 2021. While a number of high-speed railways in eastern China have started to be operationally profitable since 2015, the high speed railways in the midwest still operate at a loss. Zhengzhou–Xi'an high-speed railway is estimated to run 59 trains in 2010 and 125 trains in 2018, yet in 2016 there are merely around 30 trains on operation, causing a 1.4 billion loss. The Guiyang–Guangzhou high-speed railway and Lanzhou–Xinjiang high-speed railway (where fares do not cover electricity costs) are both suffering from high maintenance cost due to harsh climate conditions and complicated terrain structure. The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is one of the few lines that have been profitable, with profits steadily increasing after first breaking even in 2014, and achieving revenue of CNY 29.6 billion and net profit of CNY 12.7 billion in 2017.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: There has been debate whether China's high-speed railway network is economically efficient. According to a cost–benefit analysis by the Paulson Institute, the high-speed rail network benefits the Chinese economy by $378 billion, with an annual return on investment of 6.5%. The biggest cost savings were found to be time saved by replacing automobile and air trips, which contribute to increased traffic and delays at each endpoint respectively. The report also found that the highest benefit high-speed rail hubs were the ones going through Shanghai, Hangzhou, Beijing, Wuhan and Guangzhou, while the lowest benefit ones were Kunming, Nanning and Ürümqi. In an analysis conducted in 2019, only five out of fifteen high speed railway lines with travel speeds reaching 350 kilometers per hour, were able to cover all costs that included both the operating and capital costs. The results showed that the faster high-speed rail were more profitable in China, compared to slower rail lines.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: China's high-speed rail construction projects are highly capital intensive. About 40–50% of financing is provided by the national government through lending by state owned banks and financial institutions, another 40% by the bonds issued by the Ministry of Railway (MOR) and the remaining 10–20% by provincial and local governments. The MOR, through its financing arm, the China Rail Investment Corp (CRIC), issued an estimated ¥1 trillion (US$150 billion in 2010 dollars) in debt to finance HSR construction from 2006 to 2010, including ¥310 billion in the first 10 months of 2010. CRIC has also raised some capital through equity offerings; in the spring of 2010, CRIC sold a 4.5 percent stake in the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway to the Bank of China for ¥6.6 billion and a 4.5 percent stake to the public for ¥6 billion. CRIC retained 56.2 percent ownership on that line. As of 2010, the CRIC-bonds are considered to be relatively safe investments because they are backed by assets (the railways) and implicitly by the government.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Large construction debt-loads require significant revenues from rider fares, subsidies, and/or other sources of income, such as advertising, to repay. Despite impressive ridership figures, virtually every completed line has incurred losses in its first years of operation. For example, the Beijing–Tianjin intercity railway in its two full years of operation, delivered over 41 million rides. The line cost ¥20.42 billion to build, and ¥1.8 billion per annum to operate, including ¥0.6 billion in interest payments on its ¥10 billion of loan obligations. The terms of the loans range from 5–10 years at interest rates of 6.3 to 6.8 percent. In its first year of operation from August 1, 2008, to July 31, 2009, the line carried 18.7 million riders and generated ¥1.1 billion in revenues, which resulted in a loss of ¥0.7 billion. In the second year, ridership rose to 22.3 million and revenues improved to ¥1.4 billion, which narrowed losses somewhat to below ¥0.5 billion. To break even, the line must deliver 30 million rides annually. To be able to repay principal, ridership would need to exceed 40 million. In September 2010, daily ridership averaged 69,000 or an annual rate of 25.2 million. In 2013, ridership totaled 25.85 million.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: The line has a capacity of delivering 100 million rides annually and initial estimated repayment period of 16 years.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: The Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan PDL lost ¥0.8 billion in its first year and is set to lose ¥0.9 billion in 2010. The Southeast HSR corridor lost ¥0.377 billion in its first year beginning August 2009. The Zhengzhou-Xian HSR since opening in February 2010 was expected to generate revenues of ¥0.6 billion in its first full year but must make interest payments of ¥1.1 billion. In the first three quarters of 2012, the line lost ¥1.87 billion. The losses must be covered by the operator, which is usually subsidized by local governments. In December 2014, the Henan provincial government imposed a rule requiring municipal authorities pay 70% of the deficit incurred by Henan's intercity lines with the provincial authorities paying the remainder 30%.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: The MOR faces a debt-repayment peak in 2014. Some economists recommend further subsidies to lower fares and boost ridership and ultimately revenues. Others warn that the financing side of the existing construction and operation model is unsustainable. If the rail-backed loans cannot be fully repaid, they may be refinanced or the banks may seize ownership of the railways. To prevent that eventuality, the MOR is trying to improve management of its rapidly growing HSR holdings.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Overall, ridership is growing as the high-speed rail network continues to expand. High-speed rail is also becoming relatively more affordable as fares have remained stable while worker wages have grown sharply over the same period. In 2016, the high-speed rail revenue was 140.9 billion RMB Yuan (20 billion USD), while the same term interest from at least 3300 billion debt of its construction was 156.8 billion RMB Yuan (22.4 billion USD). According to the World Bank, a stable long term planning and standardization of technology and design used in the high-speed rail helps to reduce financial and operational cost. Standardization of designs and procedures such as train tracks, rolling stocks, signal systems keeps the construction cost down. Moreover, State-owned corporation also uses bulk purchasing to reduce material prices.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Currently, fares for China's high-speed rail service costs significantly less than similar systems in other developed countries, however fares are considerably more expensive than conventional rail service.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: In comparison, high speed train tickets in France or Germany cost slightly over US$0.10 per kilometer and the various Shinkansen services hover above US$0.20 per kilometer.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: The spread of high-speed rail has forced domestic airlines in China to slash airfare and cancel regional flights. The impact of high-speed rail on air travel is most acute for intercity trips under . By the spring of 2011, commercial airline service had been completely halted on previously popular routes such as Wuhan–Nanjing, Wuhan–Nanchang, Xi’an–Zhengzhou and Chengdu–Chongqing. Flights on routes over are generally unaffected. As of October 2013, high-speed rail was carrying twice as many passengers each month as the country's airlines.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: China's high-speed railway network is by far the longest in the world. The HSR network reached in total length in August 2020 with plans to reach in 2035. HSR lines with design speeds at are more common than higher speed lines. According to a World Bank publication on Chinese HSR, by the end of 2017 "the length of 300–350 kph lines was about 10,000 km, and the length of 200–250 kph lines was about 15,000 km."


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Lastly, the HSR network includes newly built rail lines with a design speed of that can carry high-speed passenger and express freight trains.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: The centerpiece of China's expansion into high-speed rail is a national high-speed rail grid consisting of mainly passenger dedicated lines that is overlaid onto the existing railway network.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: The grid is composed of eight high-speed rail corridors, four running north–south and four east–west, and has a total of 12,000 km. Most of the lines follow the routes of existing trunk lines and are designated for passenger traffic only. They are known as passenger-designated lines (PDL). Several sections of the national grid, especially along the southeast coastal corridor, were built to link cities that had no previous rail connections. Those sections will carry a mix of passenger and freight. High-speed trains on HSR Corridors can generally reach . On mixed-use HSR lines, passenger train service can attain peak speeds of . This ambitious national grid project was planned to be built by 2020, but the government's stimulus has expedited time-tables considerably for many of the lines.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: The 4+4 national HSR grid was largely completed by the end of 2015 and now serves as the backbone of China's HSR network. In July 2016, the state planners reorganized the national HSR networkincluding HSR lines in operation, under construction and under planninginto eight vertical and eight horizontal high speed rail corridors, almost doubling the network.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: According to the "Mid-to-Long Term Railway Network Plan" (revised in 2008), the MOR plans to build over of railway in order to expand the railway network in western China and to fill gaps in the networks of eastern and central China. Some of these new railways are being built to accommodate speeds of for both passengers and freight. These are also considered high-speed rail though they are not part of the national HSR grid or Intercity High Speed Rail. Several HSR lines planned and built as a regional high-speed railway under the 2008 Revisions have since been incorporated into the 8+8 national grid.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Intercity railways are designed to provide regional high-speed rail service between large cities and metropolitan areas that are generally within the same province. They are built with the approval of the central government but are financed and operated largely by local governments with limited investment and oversight from the China Rail Corporation. Some intercity lines run parallel to other high-speed rail lines but serve more stations along the route. Intercity HSR service speeds range from .


title: High-speed rail in China

text: The HSR network includes new mixed passenger-freight lines with a design speed of . Some high speed trains also continue on or run over connecting segments of upgraded conventional lines. Trains can operate at on many of the conventional main lines.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: China Railway High-speed (CRH) (中国铁路高速) is the major high-speed rail service provided by state-owned railway manufacturing and construction corporation China Railway. China Railway is the successor of the former Ministry of Railways. Ministry held the power drafting policy on railroad transposition, development of the rail network and rail infrastructure in China. Nowadays, China Railway no longer decides the railway policy, instead focus on the development of the rail network and rail infrastructure in China. China Railway assumed control of complete railway network that was built by the dissolved Ministry of Railways. The CRH's high-speed trains are called Harmony and Rejuvenation. In October 2010, CRH service more than 1,000 trains per day, with a daily ridership of about 925,000. as of May, 2015, a total of 1469 CRH trainsets were put into use. Other than China Railway, Hong Kong MTR Corporation provides short-haul service on Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL).


title: High-speed rail in China

text: China Railway reports the number of passengers carried by high-speed EMU train sets and this figure is frequently reported as high-speed ridership, even though this figure includes passengers from EMU trains providing sub-high speed service. In 2007, CRH EMU trains running on conventional track upgraded in the sixth round of the "Speed-up Campaign" carried 61 million passengers, before the country's first high-speed rail line, the Beijing–Tianjin intercity railway, opened in August 2008.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: In 2018, China Railway operated 3,970.5 pairs of passenger train service, of which 2,775 pairs were carried by EMU train sets. Of the 3.313 billion passenger-trips delivered by China Railway in 2018, EMU train sets carried 2.001 billion passenger-trips. This EMU passenger figure includes ridership from certain D- and C-class trains that are technically not within the definition of high-speed rail in China, as well as ridership from EMU train sets serving routes on conventional track or routes that combine high-speed track and conventional track. Nevertheless, by any measure, high-speed rail ridership in China has grown rapidly with expansion of the high-speed rail network and EMU service since 2008.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: China is the third country, after Japan and France, to have one billion cumulative HSR passengers. In 2018, annual ridership on EMU train sets, which encompasses officially defined high-speed rail service as well as certain sub-high-speed service routes, accounted for about two-thirds of all regional rail trips (not including urban trains) in China. At the end of 2018, cumulative passengers delivered by EMU trains is reported to be over 9 billion.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: China Railway High-speed runs different electric multiple unit trainsets, the name Hexie Hao () is for designs which are imported from other nations and designated CRH-1 through CRH-5 and CRH380A(L), CRH380B(L), and CRH380C(L). CRH trainsets are intended to provide fast and convenient travel between cities. Some of the Hexie Hao train sets are manufactured locally through technology transfer, a key requirement for China. The signalling, track and support structures, control software, and station design are developed domestically with foreign elements as well. By 2010, the truck system as a whole is predominantly Chinese. China currently holds many new patents related to the internal components of these trains, re-designed in China to allow the trains to run at higher speeds than the foreign designs allowed. However, these patents are only valid within China, and as such hold no international power. The weakness on intellectual property of Hexie Hao causes obstruction for China to export its high-speed rail related product, which leads to the development of the completely redesigned train franchise called Fuxing Hao () that based on indigenous technologies.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: In October 2016 China's CRRC announced that it was beginning research and development on a 600 km/h Maglev train and would build a 5 km test track. In June 2020, a trial run was conducted at Tongji University. A planned launch of the maglev train was set for 2025.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Many of the Passenger Designated Lines use ballastless tracks, which allow for smoother train rides at high speeds and can withstand heavy use without warping. The ballastless track technology, imported from Germany, carries higher upfront costs but can reduce maintenance costs.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Chinese train-makers and rail builders have signed agreements to build HSRs in Turkey, Venezuela, Argentina, and Indonesia and are bidding on HSR projects in the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Brazil (São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro) and Myanmar, and other countries. They are competing directly with the established European and Japanese manufacturers, and sometimes partnering with them. In Saudi Arabia's Haramain High Speed Rail Project, Alstom partnered with China Railway Construction Corp. to win the contract to build phase I of the Mecca to Medina HSR line, and Siemens has joined CSR to bid on phase II. China is also competing with Japan, Germany, South Korea, Spain, France and Italy to bid for California's high-speed rail line project, which would connect San Francisco and Los Angeles. In November 2009, the MOR signed preliminary agreements with the state's high-speed rail authority and General Electric (GE) under which China would license technology, provide financing and furnish up to 20 percent of the parts with the remaining sourced from American suppliers, and final assembly of the rolling stock in the United States.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: In January 2014, the China Railway Construction Corporation completed a 30-km section of the Ankara-Istanbul high-speed railway between Eskişehir and İnönü in western Turkey.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: In mid 2015, China has signed up to design a high-speed railway between the Russian cities of Moscow and Kazan, one of the first concrete examples of the new business with China that Russian officials have been pursuing with renewed vigor since falling out with the West. A unit of Russia's state-owned JSC Russian Railways signed a contract with the design unit of China's state-controlled China Railway Group to come up with the plans for a 770 kilometer high-speed rail between the two Russian cities. The Chinese firm will work alongside two Russian companies for on the designs for a total cost of 20.8 billion rubles ($383 million) over the next two years, according to Russian Railways.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Once the designs are developed, a separate tender will be held for the actual construction of the rail link, which Russian Railways expects to cost 1.06 trillion rubles ($19.5 billion).


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Almost all HSR trains, tracks, and services are owned and operated by the China Railway Corporation under the brand China Railway High-speed (CRH) with two exceptions being the Shanghai Maglev Train, which is operated by the Shentong Metro Group, and Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL), which is partially operated by the Hong Kong-based MTR Corporation. Although both classified as high-speed rail, the Shanghai Maglev often is not counted as part of the national high-speed rail network, while XRL is fully integrated into the national network of the CRH.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: China has the world's only commercial maglev high-speed train line in operation. The Shanghai Maglev Train, a turnkey Transrapid maglev demonstration line 30.5 km long. The trains have a top operational speed of 430 km/h and can reach a top non-commercial speed of 501 km/h. It opened for operations in March 2004, and transports passengers between Shanghai's Longyang Road station and Shanghai Pudong International Airport. There have been numerous attempts to extend the line without success. A Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev line was also initially discussed but later shelved in favour of conventional high-speed rail.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: Two other Maglev lines, the Changsha Maglev and the Line S1 of Beijing, were designed for commercial operations with speeds lower than 120 km/h. Additionally, another two lines are under construction, the Qingyuan Maglev and the Fenghuang Maglev. The completion dates are 2020 and 2021.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: The "fastest" train commercial service can be defined alternatively by a train's top speed or average trip speed.


title: High-speed rail in China

text: The G403/404, and G405/406 (Beijingxi)- (Kunmingnan) train (2760 km, about 12–13 hours), which began service on January 1, 2017, became the longest high-speed rail service in the world. It overtook the G529/530 - () train (2697 km, 15 1/2 hours for southbound train, 15 3/4 hours for northbound train), which had set the previous record on July 1, 2016.


title: In the Realm of the Senses

text: In the Realm of the Senses (, Japanese: , "Ai no Korīda", "Bullfight of Love") is a 1976 erotic art film written and directed by Nagisa Ōshima. It is a fictionalised and sexually explicit treatment of a 1936 murder committed by Sada Abe. An international coproduction of France and Japan, the film generated great controversy at the time of its release. While intended for mainstream wide release, the film contains scenes of unsimulated sexual activity between the actors (Eiko Matsuda and Tatsuya Fuji, among others).


title: In the Realm of the Senses

text: In 1936 Tokyo, Sada Abe is a former prostitute who now works as a maid in a hotel. The hotel's owner Kichizo Ishida molests her, and the two begin an intense affair that consists of sexual experiments and various self-indulgences. Ishida leaves his wife to pursue his affair with Sada. Sada becomes increasingly possessive and jealous of Ishida, and Ishida more eager to please her. Their mutual obsession escalates until Ishida finds that she is most excited by strangling him during lovemaking, and he is killed in this fashion. Sada then severs his penis. While she is shown next to him naked, it is mentioned that she will walk around with his penis inside her for several days. Words written with blood can be read on his chest: "Sada Kichi the two of us forever."


title: In the Realm of the Senses

text: The film was released under the title of "In the Realm of the Senses" in the U.S. and the U.K., and under "L'Empire des sens" ("Empire of the Senses") in France. The French title was taken from Roland Barthes's book about Japan, "L'Empire des signes" ("Empire of Signs", 1970).


title: In the Realm of the Senses

text: The original Japanese title "Ai no Korīda" was later reimagined as the title of the 1979 funk song "Ai No Corrida", originally recorded by Chaz Jankel and later brought to success by Quincy Jones in 1981.


title: In the Realm of the Senses

text: Strict censorship laws in Japan would not have allowed the film to be made according to Ōshima's vision. This obstruction was bypassed by officially listing the production as a French enterprise, and the undeveloped footage was shipped to France for processing and editing. At its premiere in Japan, the film's sexual activity was optically censored using reframing and blurring.


title: In the Realm of the Senses

text: In the United States, the film was initially banned upon its premiere at the 1976 New York Film Festival but was later screened uncut, and a similar fate awaited the film when it was released in Germany. It was also banned because of a scene in which Kichi pushes an egg into Sada's vulva, forcing her to push it out of her vagina before Kichi eats the egg. The film was not available on home video until 1990, although it was sometimes seen uncut in film clubs.


title: In the Realm of the Senses

text: At the time, the only European country in which the film was banned was Belgium. The ban was lifted in 1994, and Belgium has not censored a film of any kind since.


title: In the Realm of the Senses

text: At the time of its initial screening at the 1976 London Film Festival, the British Board of Film Censors recommended that it be shown under private cinema club conditions to avoid the need for heavy cuts, but only after the Obscene Publications Act had been extended to films in 1977 to avoid potential legal problems. The film opened at the Gate Cinema Club in 1978. It was given an official countrywide cinema release in 1991, though the video release was delayed until 2000 when it was passed with an "18" certificate (suitable for adults only). All of the adult sexual activity was left intact, but a shot in which Sada yanks the penis of a prepubescent boy after he misbehaves was reframed, zooming in so that only the reaction of the boy was shown. In Australia, the film was originally banned, but a censored version was made available in 1977. In 2000, it finally became available in its complete version. The graphic sexual content of the production also caused it to be banned in Israel in 1987.


title: In the Realm of the Senses

text: The film is available in uncut form in France, Germany, the United States (as part of The Criterion Collection), the Netherlands, Belgium and several other territories.


title: In the Realm of the Senses

text: In Canada, when originally submitted to the provincial film boards in the 1970s, the film was rejected in all jurisdictions except Quebec and British Columbia. It was not until 1991 that individual provinces approved the film and gave it a certificate. However, in the Maritimes, the film was rejected again as the policies followed in the 1970s were still enforced.


title: In the Realm of the Senses

text: In Brazil, the film was banned during the military dictatorship due to its explicit sex scenes. The ban was lifted in 1980.


title: In the Realm of the Senses

text: Because of its sexual themes and explicit scenes, the film was the cause of great controversy in Portugal in 1991 after it aired on RTP. Some deemed it inappropriate even for the watershed slot, while others appreciated its airing. The film aired again on RTP2, almost unnoticed.


title: In the Realm of the Senses

text: In France, the film sold 1,730,874 tickets, grossing approximately ($5,203,732). In Germany, where it was released in 1978, the film sold 693,628 tickets, grossing approximately ($2,446,050). Combined, the film sold 2,424,502 tickets and grossed approximately in France and Germany.


title: In the Realm of the Senses

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 86% based on 36 critic reviews, with an average rating of 7.7 out of 10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Sexual taboos are broken and boundaries crossed "In the Realm of the Senses", a fearlessly provocative psychosexual tale."


title: Nichijou

text: Set in a typical suburban Japanese town, "Nichijou" is populated by an ensemble set of characters, featuring moments from their everyday lives which alternate between the mundane and the strange, without ample focus on a narrative. A 26-episode anime television series directed by Tatsuya Ishihara and produced by Kyoto Animation was broadcast on independent television stations from April 3 to September 21, 2011, after an earlier original video animation (OVA) was released in March. A PlayStation Portable game by Vridge and Kadokawa Shoten was released on July 28, 2011, entitled "Nichijou: Uchuujin".


title: Nichijou

text: The manga and anime series were initially licensed in North America by Bandai Entertainment in July 2011, but both releases were cancelled due to the company's downsizing. The manga series was later licensed for publication in English by Vertical, with the first volume released in March 2016. Funimation released the anime in North America with subtitles on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on February 7, 2017. An English dub was later created for the Blu-ray re-release on July 23, 2019. Madman Entertainment licensed the anime series in 2011 for Australian and New Zealand distribution, releasing the DVDs in April and May 2013.


title: Nichijou

text: The anime adaptation initially received reserved praise from Western critics, who commended the animation quality but found it lacking in consistent humor and substance. Retrospective reviews, however, have since given the series high critical praise for its heart and surreal comedy, with one critic deeming it among the "finest anime comedies of all time".


title: Nichijou

text: "Nichijou" follows the everyday lives of various people in the town of Tokisadame, centering on the energetic Yūko Aioi, the bright and cheerful Mio Naganohara, the quiet and deadpan Mai Minakami, the anxious android Nano Shinonome, her young creator the Professor, and a talking black cat named Sakamoto, along with an ensemble cast of characters. Random, outlandish events regularly occur throughout the series, mainly through the mundane situations each character goes through.


title: Nichijou

text: In the anime series, Nano receives the most prominent story arc out of all the characters; the first half of "Nichijou" involves her desire to become a student in high school, while the second half deals with her fear of being exposed as a robot while at school. Vignettes which are mostly unrelated to the main focus of the series are placed throughout each episode, some of them adapted from "Helvetica Standard", another manga by Arawi.


title: Nichijou

text: "Nichijou" began as a manga series written and illustrated by Keiichi Arawi. It uses a combination of normal comic format and four-panel comic strips. Originally, the manga was meant to be a short, stand-alone series which was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's "Shōnen Ace" magazine between the May and October 2006 issues. Starting with the December 2006 issue, the manga began regular serialization in "Shōnen Ace", and was also serialized in Kadokawa's "Comptiq" magazine between the March 2007 and July 2008 issues. The first "tankōbon" volume was released in Japan on July 26, 2007. The manga series ended with its tenth volume, which was released on December 10, 2015, along with a limited edition commemorating the tenth anniversary of the series, which included a 120-page companion book. On October 20, 2021, Arawi announced "Nichijou" would be serializing again in "Monthly Shōnen Ace" from October 26, 2021.


title: Nichijou

text: Bandai Entertainment initially licensed the manga in July 2011, but later cancelled its release by October due to downsizing of the company. JManga, an American digital manga platform, was able to release the first four volumes of the manga through its website before shutting down in May 2013. The manga series was later licensed for publication in English by Vertical, which released all ten volumes in 2016 and 2017. Beginning in January 2012, the manga has been released in Finland by Punainen jättiläinen under the name "Arki", which is Finnish for "weekday". It was translated into Finnish by Antti Kokkonen.


title: Nichijou

text: Kyoto Animation adapted the "Nichijou" manga into a 26-episode anime television series and an original video animation (OVA) episode. The anime adaptation was first announced on May 22, 2010 through the July issue of "Shōnen Ace" magazine. The OVA, titled "Nichijou Episode 0", was directed by Kazuya Sakamoto and bundled as a DVD extra with volume six of the manga series on March 12, 2011. Series composer Yūji Nomi orchestrated the score in Hungary. The anime series aired in Japan on TV Aichi from April 3 to September 25, 2011, with the final episode written by Arawi, creator of the original manga. It was also simulcast by Crunchyroll under the name "My Ordinary Life". The series was re-edited into twelve episodes for broadcast on NHK Educational TV in January 2012. The series also incorporates skits from Arawi's other manga, , which is published in Kadokawa Shoten's "Newtype" magazine. Bandai Entertainment had originally licensed the anime, but its release was later cancelled. However, Madman Entertainment managed to release the series in Australia and New Zealand in subtitles only. It was released as a two–part collection containing 13 episodes each. The first part was released on April 11, 2013, while the second part was released on May 9, 2013. Funimation later licensed the series in North America and released it on February 7, 2017 with subtitles. Funimation re-released the series with a dub on July 23, 2019. On October 7, 2021, Funimation announced two Blu-ray releases for the United Kingdom and Ireland that will be released on December 13, 2021; a standard edition, and a limited edition which includes a rigid box, a 40 page art book and 6 art cards. The Funimation produced English dub of the series became available on the Crunchyroll service from March 2022.


title: Nichijou

text: A PlayStation Portable video game titled developed by Vridge and published by Kadokawa Shoten was released solely in Japan on July 28, 2011. In the game, the player takes the role of a producer from "Galaxy TV" running the anime adaptation of the manga, whose objective is to keep the ratings high by correctly deciding on what unusual situation to insert in the show. The Japanese gaming magazine "Famitsu" gave the game a score of 27 out of 40 based on four individual reviews.


title: Nichijou

text: The "Nichijou" manga series sold 1,005,300 "tankōbon" volumes in 2011, reaching 49th place in the year's best-selling manga series chart released by Oricon.


title: Nichijou

text: The "Nichijou" anime has reportedly had low BD and DVD sales, and did not come close to meeting the break even line according to animation director Shunji Suzuki. The first DVD volume sold 924 copies in its first week of sales, while the second and fourth BD volumes sold over 2,000 copies each in their first week.


title: Nichijou

text: Anime News Network (ANN) reviewer Carl Kimlinger gave the series' first seven episodes a B, stating that the anime is a "slice-of-life comedy with a penchant for lunacy and a taste for huggable cuteness...", giving praise especially to Kyoto Animation's lively animation of the series: "a rare chance to see talented animators fully indulging their love of the art." Fellow ANN reviewer Theron Martin stated in his review of "Nichijou Episode 1" that despite the series' ability to entertain, it is "absolutely not a series for everyone". Chris Beveridge of the now defunct Mania.com reviewed the first four episodes, giving each succeeding episode a lower grade (B for episode 1 down to D+ by episode 4). Beveridge stated in his review of episode 4 that "["Nichijou" is] so full of fluff and pointlessness that it's hard to get enthused about."


title: Nichijou

text: After the North American Blu-ray release of "Nichijou" in February 2017, Nick Creamer of ANN gave a highly positive review for the series, considering it "one of the finest anime comedies of all time", in contrast to the reserved praise previously given by other reviewers. Creamer stated that "As a tumultuous collection of madcap skits, "Nichijou" is an unparalleled success... Blessed by some of the most beautiful animation in recent memory, nearly every gag is elevated to some kind of surrealist beauty. Beyond that, the show's sense of heart is nearly as strong as its sense of humor." Beveridge would also revise his negative opinion of the series by 2017, giving it a grade of A+. He stated that "["Nichijou"] is that rare cult series that has such high end values to it and so many layers and richness that people will overlook because it's a comedy that I cannot recommend it enough."


title: Nichijou

text: Crunchyroll's editorial team chose "Nichijou" as one of the twenty-five best anime of the 2010s decade and writer Kara Dennison commented it is "a relatable slice-of-life series" whose characters and "charming art style, makes it impossible to look away. Writing for "Forbes", Lauren Orsini considered it to be one of the five best anime of 2011; she wrote, "no matter how off the wall the story gets, its dedication to the realistically awkward teen girls who must navigate it gives it heart".


title: Sachin Bansal

text: Sachin Bansal (born August 5, 1981) is an Indian entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder of Flipkart During his over 11 year career at Flipkart, Bansal was CEO and chairman. In 2018, Bansal exited Flipkart following the Walmart deal.


title: Sachin Bansal

text: In 2007, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (not related) founded Flipkart whose valuation in 2018 was $20.8 billion. In 2018, Bansal held a 5.5 percent stake in Flipkart, which he sold to Walmart and his net worth then was a little over $1 billion. In May 2018, Bansal announced that after stepping down as the executive chairman of Flipkart, he would be focusing on pending personal projects, gaming and brushing up his coding skills. Sachin Bansal is now the managing director of Navi Group, a financial services company.


title: Sachin Bansal

text: Bansal was born in Chandigarh, India, on August 5, 1981. His father is a business man and mother, a homemaker. Bansal attended Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and completed a degree in computer engineering in 2005. After graduation, Bansal worked at Techspan for a few months and later in 2006 he joined Amazon Web Services as a senior software engineer. In 2007, Bansal quit Amazon to start his own company.


title: Sachin Bansal

text: In October 2007, Bansal and his co-founder, Binny Bansal, started an online bookstore, Flipkart, with an initial capital of ₹4,00,000 (4 Lakh Rupees or US$5,600). They first started operating out of an apartment in Koramangala, in Bangalore, India. In the first few months, according to Bansal's own claims, he oversaw all business details, from building the first version of their website to sourcing book to packing and delivering them. From inception until 2016, Bansal held the position of Chief Executive Officer and from 2016 until 2018, he held the position of Executive Chairman. In 2018, Bansal signed a non-compete clause with Walmart and exited Flipkart. The non-compete clause restricted Bansal from starting any business that directly or indirectly competed with Flipkart for 18 months and in making any investments in businesses competing with Flipkart for 36 months from his departure.


title: Sachin Bansal

text: In December 2018, Bansal founded BACQ Acquisitions Private Limited, a venture that focused on building and acquiring technology-driven businesses in diverse industry verticals. Since 2014, Bansal has made 18 investments in local, early-stage startups where the deal size was $1–2 million. In 2019, Bansal invested $100 million in Ola Cabs and received a stake holding of 0.37 per cent. In February 2019, he had investments in Ola, Grey Orange, Ather Energy, SigTuple, IN shorts, Unacademy and Terminus.


title: Sachin Bansal

text: In December 2019, Sachin Bansal's Navi Technologies acquired Bengaluru based technology consulting firm Maven Hive. No financial details were disclosed.


title: Sachin Bansal

text: Sachin acquired the general insurance brand COCO, previously owned by the housing finance company Deewan housing finance limited, through his company Navi Technologies in 2020. In April 2020, Navi Technologies announced Sachin Bansal as its Managing Director, at the same time when the company disclosed raising 209 crore from Gaja Capital. On 12 March 2022, Navi Technologies filed a draft for an INR 3350 crore IPO.


title: Sachin Bansal

text: Sachin Bansal is married to Priya Bansal singh, a dentist by training and profession. They have one son.


title: Sachin Bansal

text: In March 2020, Sachin Bansal's wife Priya Bansal filed a dowry harassment case against him alleging physical and sexual assault, and pressure to transfer properties to his name.


title: Sachin Bansal

text: She also alleged that Sachin sexually assaulted her sister. A first information report registered at the Koramangala police station on February 28 named four persons, including Sachin's parents, Sat Prakash Agarwal and Kiran Bansal and brother Nitin Bansal.


title: Sachin Bansal

text: In response, Sachin Bansal and his family members filed petitions under the Code of Criminal Procedure before the High Court of Karnataka. The complaint as well as the FIR was quashed by the orders of High Court of Karnataka dated August 13, 2021 and September 28, 2021.


title: Sachin Bansal

text: Priya Bansal subsequently filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court of India challenging the earlier Order by the High Court of Karnataka. The said petition was dismissed by the Supreme Court of India on March 11, 2022.


title: Trouble with the Curve

text: Trouble with the Curve is a 2012 American sports drama film directed by Robert Lorenz and starring Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake, Matthew Lillard, and John Goodman. The film revolves around an aging baseball scout whose daughter joins him on a scouting trip. Filming began in March 2012, and the film was released on September 21, 2012.


title: Trouble with the Curve

text: This was Eastwood's first acting project since 2008's "Gran Torino" and his first acting role in a film he did not direct since his cameo in 1995's "Casper". A year after its release the film became the subject of a plagiarism lawsuit by a producer alleging that his former partner had taken an unfinished script after a dispute and conspired with his agent and Warner Bros. to present it as the work of a relative unknown.


title: Trouble with the Curve

text: Aging Atlanta Braves baseball scout Gus Lobel's last assignment is to scout, proving his value to the organization. He's viewed as unadaptable to changes within the game, especially advanced statistical analysis. His boss and friend Pete does not want to let him go, but is contending with ambitious junior executive Phillip Sanderson, vying for the general manager post who feels Gus is an obstacle.


title: Trouble with the Curve

text: Pete suspects Gus is hiding health problems so, behind his back, Pete contacts Gus's daughter Mickey, a workaholic lawyer pursuing partnership in her firm, to join her father on a scouting trip to North Carolina. Gus is to review top prospect Bo Gentry, whose gaudy statistics make him a likely top draft pick.


title: Trouble with the Curve

text: Mickey realizes Gus's sight is failing, so she actively helps to make up for his shortcoming. Along the way, he reconnects with a former player he once scouted, Johnny "The Flame" Flanagan, now a scout for the Boston Red Sox, who is interested in Mickey. The Red Sox have the top pick in the draft, just ahead of the Braves, and Johnny is also scouting Bo Gentry.


title: Trouble with the Curve

text: Mickey asks Gus why he left her with an uncle she barely knew as a child after her mother died. He explains that, on a scouting trip, a child molester approached her. Gus prevented anything from happening, nearly beating the man to death. Afterwards, he felt that always being on the road as a scout meant he couldn't protect Mickey properly. She tells him keeping her away was worse, blaming him for her long chain of poor relationships with potential suitors. She then walks away, leaving Gus frustrated.


title: Trouble with the Curve

text: As Gus and Mickey watch Bo play with other scouts present, they use Gus's hearing and Mickey's sight to review him. Spotting a problem with his ability to hit a curveball, Gus advises Johnny to pass on Bo in the draft not explaining why, and Johnny takes his advice. However, when he gives Pete and the Braves' management the same advice, Phillip disagrees, showing his statistical analysis as proof that Bo should be drafted. He doubles down by staking his career on the decision to sign Bo, leading Braves general manager Vince to draft him. When Johnny learns of the move, he incorrectly believes that Gus and Mickey double-crossed him to allow the Braves to draft Bo and leaves angrily.


title: Trouble with the Curve

text: After yet another argument Gus abandons Mickey at the hotel. While waiting on a ride back to her life she hears a pitcher throwing outside her room and realizes he is talented just from the sound. She approaches the young man, Rigoberto, and volunteers to catch for him. After seeing him throw a few curveballs, she realizes he is a baseball prospect so she calls Pete, who reluctantly agrees to have him attend a tryout in Atlanta.


title: Trouble with the Curve

text: Returning to the Braves' office, Vince and Phillip criticize Gus for his evaluation of Bo. Pete interrupts to let them know Mickey has brought Rigo to the field. As Bo practices batting, Phillip mocks Gus and Mickey for bringing in Rigo, an unknown. Bo remembers Rigo selling peanuts at a high school game, and also mocks him. Regardless, Mickey insists they allow Rigo to pitch. He throws several fastballs, which Bo repeatedly misses, then Mickey asks him to throw his curve, and again Bo cannot connect with the ball on three straight attempts. Gus triumphantly proclaims he has a problem with curveballs, why he was against signing him. Everyone realizes they were wrong about both Bo and Gus.


title: Trouble with the Curve

text: Management resumes their meeting, intent on signing Rigo. When Pete asks who can represent Rigo, Gus immediately suggests Mickey could be Rigo's sports agent, due to her legal background and knowledge of the game. When Phillip makes another snide remark to Gus, Vince fires him and offers Gus a contract extension. Mickey then gets a partnership offer from her firm, but declines it by throwing her phone away. Outside the stadium, Mickey and Gus find Johnny waiting. Mickey approaches him and they kiss while Gus lights a cigar and walks away.


title: Trouble with the Curve

text: On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 51% based on 204 reviews, with a rating average of 5.60/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though predictable and somewhat dramatically underwhelming, "Trouble with the Curve" benefits from Clint Eastwood's grizzled charisma and his easy chemistry with a charming Amy Adams." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 58 out of 100 based on reviews from 40 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Trouble with the Curve

text: In its opening weekend, "Trouble with the Curve" ranked third in the box office, grossing $12.2 million. In its first week in theaters, it ranked second with $16,195,962. It remained in the top ten over the next two weeks with $31,218,109. However, the results at the box office were subsequently low. In twelve weeks, "Trouble with the Curve" grossed $35,763,137 in the United States, where it was distributed to 3,212 theaters. At the worldwide box office, the film grossed $48,963,137 which is the second lowest take for a film featuring Clint Eastwood as an actor, just ahead of "Blood Work" ($31,794,718 in worldwide box office). In January 2013, the film was nominated for Best Intergenerational Story at the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards, but lost to "Silver Linings Playbook".


title: Trouble with the Curve

text: A year after the film's release, another producer, Ryan Brooks, filed a lawsuit in federal district court against Warner, the producers, two talent agencies, screenwriter Brown and Don Handfield, an actor and former partner of Brooks. He alleged copyright infringement and conspiracy, claiming the produced screenplay of the film bore striking similarities to "Omaha", an unproduced screenplay he had commissioned from Handfield that had as its main character an older college baseball coach working through a difficult relationship with his grown daughter, as well as other plot elements.


title: Trouble with the Curve

text: Brooks, a former minor league baseball player himself, claimed that Handfield took the unfinished "Omaha" script with him after the two had a falling out over a rewrite. Handfield then, Brooks claims, conspired with Charles Ferraro, his agent at United Talent, to present it—with minor alterations such as changing the setting from college baseball to the major leagues—as the work of Brown, a fellow client of Ferraro with only two minor credits to his name who had primarily worked as a musician. Brooks' suit claimed that Brown's interviews to promote the film seemed rehearsed and frustrating to interviewers trying to understand how he created the film, and questioned how an unknown writer in his fifties managed to land the well-connected Ferraro as an agent.


title: Trouble with the Curve

text: All the named defendants who spoke to the media about the claims, including Brown, denied and derided them. Warner responded with a letter to Brooks' lawyer threatening serious legal actions in response if he did not withdraw the "reckless and false" complaint within a week. Attached to it was a draft of the "Trouble with the Curve" script, credited to Brown, that had purportedly been optioned by another production company in 1998. Brooks' lawyer questioned its authenticity to "The New York Times" suggesting that it bore signs of fabrication, such as the anachronistic use of wireless laptops, and that there was no record of it having been registered with the Writers Guild of America, a common practice for screenwriters establishing authorship of their work before getting a production company interested.


title: Trouble with the Curve

text: Lawyers for the studio responded with a motion for summary judgement in their favor and presented evidence that they claimed proved Brown had written the first drafts of the script as early as 1996, including an affidavit from a computer forensics expert authenticating the timestamps on a floppy disk containing those early drafts. Brooks' lawyers called all of the evidence of earlier creation forged or tampered with, in addition to calling attention to anachronistic passages in those purported earlier drafts. In February 2014 Dale S. Fischer, the judge hearing the case, granted the motion, saying that Brooks had overstated the similarities between the two scripts and that, even if he hadn't, "the idea of a father-daughter baseball story is not protectable as a matter of copyright law."


title: Trouble with the Curve

text: Two months later Fischer dismissed the remaining claims under federal law, but said claims under state law could still be filed in state court. Brooks appealed his decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and in October refiled the case in Los Angeles County Superior Court. This time he alleged only breach of contract and did not name either Warner or Eastwood as defendants, as he had in the original claim. He demanded $5 million in damages.


title: Tempted (TV series)

text: Tempted () is a 2018 South Korean television series starring Woo Do-hwan, Joy, Kim Min-jae, and Moon Ga-young. It is loosely based on the 1782 French novel "Les Liaisons dangereuses" by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. The series aired from March 12 to May 1, 2018 on MBC TV's Mondays and Tuesdays at 22:00 (KST) time slot for 32 episodes.


title: Tempted (TV series)

text: A romantic melodrama that depicts the lives of a young man and woman who begin to discover their true feelings whilst playing the dangerous game of love. The show is based on the classic 18th-century French novel "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.


title: Tempted (TV series)

text: Student president Choi Su-ji (Moon Ga Young), Kwon Si-hyeon (Woo Do-hwan) eldest heir of the JK Group, and casanova Lee Se-ju (Kim Min-jae) have been best friends since childhood. Su-ji’s current boyfriend, Lee Ki-young () humiliates her and her mother for trying to use him to climb up the social ladder and breaks up with her. As the last straw, when Su-ji's mother and Si-hyeon’s father announce their engagement, the trio devise a plan to hit two birds with one stone.


title: Tempted (TV series)

text: Eun Tae-hui (Joy) is a hardworking female college student who no longer believes in love after watching the demise of her parents' marriage. Su-ji finds out that Tae-hui is Ki-young's first love, and asks Si-hyeon to seduce Tae-hui and then break her heart, as a way to prove his loyalty to Su-ji. After proving which, Su-ji and Si-hyeon will marry to prevent their parents from doing so themselves.


title: Tempted (TV series)

text: However, all does not go as planned, when Si-hyeon and Tae-hui begin to actually fall for each other. The strain this puts on the trio's friendship, Tae-hui's reaction after seeing their true faces and Ki-young’s thirst for revenge make up the rest of this drama.