Philosophical Reflection on Innovation and Development of China’s High-speed Railway

Abstract

The author reviews the development history of China's high-speed railway to summarize the major innovative achievements through philosophical reflections. Seven lessons are drawn from Chinese experiences as following: (1) To focus on the overall situation and evaluate the relationship between an individual engineering unit and the entire engineering system; (2) To achieve progressive innovation while pursuing breakthrough innovation based on the practice; (3) To adhere to oneself and consider the relationship between technology import and independent innovation; (4) To cultivate innovation ability, and highlight the role of human resources in various elements; (5) To adhere to collaborative innovation and grasp the relationship among application, industry, university, and research institutes; (6) To take full advantages of the market system as well as the entire national system; (7) To open up and be self-dependent in order to assume more responsibilities to develop the high-speed rail network in the world. Lastly, it is expected that the Chinese railway practitioners continue forging ahead and dare to enter the "no man's land" to make crucial contributions for developing China's railway and the global railway.