Urban rail transit in China

Urban rail transit in the People's Republic of China encompasses a broad range of urban and suburban electric passenger rail mass transit systems including subway, light rail, tram and maglev. Some classifications also include non-rail bus rapid transport.

Several Chinese cities had urban electric tramways in the early 20th century, which were dismantled in the 1950s-1970s. Nanjing had an urban railway from 1907 to 1958. The first subway in China was built in Beijing in 1969. The Tianjin Metro followed in 1984.

Since 2000, the growth of rapid transit systems in Chinese cities has accelerated. The Shanghai Metro despite being the world's longest only started operating in 1993. From 2009 to 2015, China built 87 mass transit rail lines, totaling 3100 km, in 25 cities at the cost of ¥988.6 billion. Today China boasts both the world's longest and second longest metro systems. Out of the top 10 busiest metro systems in the world 4 of them are in China. As of early 2016, China has 3195.6 km of subway lines. Hong Kong's MTR Corporation has investment, consulting and management stakes in the rapid transit systems of several mainland Chinese cities.

As of January 2016, 26 Chinese cities have metro systems and 39 more have metro systems approved according to the National Development and Reform Commission. China plans to spend 4.7 trillion yuan ($706 billion) on transport infrastructure in the next 3 years. The Chinese government published a transport whitepaper titled "Development of China's Transport" as part of its 13th Five Year Plan. The plan envisions a more sustainable transport system with priority focused on high-capacity public transit particularly urban rail transit and bus rapid transit. All cities with over 3 million residents will start or continue developing urban rail networks. Regional railway networks will internally connect and integrate urban agglomerations such as the Jingjinji, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta areas.

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