The Guangzhou Metro (simplified Chinese: 广州地铁; traditional Chinese: 廣州地鐵; pinyin: Guǎngzhōu Dìtiě; Jyutping: Gwong²zau¹ Dei⁶tit³) ([kwàŋ.ʈʂóʊ.tî.tʰjè] and [kʷɔːŋ˧˥.tsɐu˥.tei˨.tʰiːt̚˧]) is the rapid transit system of the city of Guangzhou in the Guangdong Province of China. It is operated by the state-owned Guangzhou Metro Corporation and was the fourth metro system to be built in mainland China, after those of Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai.
The earliest efforts to build an underground rapid transit system in Guangzhou date back to 1960. In the two decades that followed, the project was brought into the agenda five times but ended up abandoned each time due to financial and technical difficulties.[8][9] Preparation of what would lead to today's Guangzhou Metro did not start until the 1980s, and it was not until 1993 that construction of the first line, Line 1, officially began.[9][10] Line 1 opened four years later in 1997 with five stations in operation.[11]
As of 1 May 2022, Guangzhou Metro has 16 lines in operation, namely: Line 1, Line 2, Line 3, Line 4, Line 5, Line 6, Line 7, Line 8, Line 9, Line 13, Line 14, Line 18, Line 21, Line 22, Guangfo Line, and Zhujiang New Town APM reaching both the urban core and surrounding suburbs. Guangfo Line connects Guangzhou and Foshan and is the first metro line between two cities in the country.[12] Daily service hours start at 6:00 am and end at midnight and daily ridership averages over 7 million.[13][14][15] Having delivered 3.029 billion rides in 2018, Guangzhou Metro is the third busiest metro system in the world and the 3rd largest in terms of length, after the metro systems of Beijing and Shanghai. Guangzhou Metro operates 320 stations[1][e] and 652.81 km (405.6 mi)[1] of lines.
Extensive development of the metro network has been planned for the next decade, with construction started on Line 10, Line 11, and Line 12, and extensions of Line 3, Line 5, Line 8, Line 13, and Line 14, Line 18, Line 22, as well as the extension of Line 7 into Shunde District of Foshan.
History
Forays of the 1960s and 1970s
A city cannot be modernized without a metro system!
- Chen Yu, Governor of Guangdong 1957-1967[f]
Chen Yu (Chinese: 陈郁), Governor of Guangdong in 1957-1967,[18] was the first to have proposed an underground metro system for Guangzhou. In the summer of 1960, he ordered a secret geological survey of groundwater levels of Guangzhou. Six holes with an accumulated depth of 1980 m were drilled in the karst and alluvial plains in the city. The geological conditions of Guangzhou, despite their complexity, did not preclude the possibility of an underground metro system. Analysis of the survey data resulted in a confidential report titled Geological Survey for Guangzhou Underground Railway Project dated July 1961, the earliest one of such reports.[8]
In 1965, Chen Yu along with Tao Zhu (Chinese: 陶铸), who had been the Governor of Guangdong and First Secretary of Guangdong Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, proposed in the wake of the Gulf of Tonkin incident that a tunnel is built in Guangzhou for wartime evacuations and post-war metro development. Approved by the central government, the project started in the spring of 1965. Due to its confidentiality in the context of intensification of the Vietnam War, the project adopted the obscure name of "Project Nine" (simplified Chinese: 九号工程; traditional Chinese: 九號工程; pinyin: Jiǔ hào gōngchéng), where "Nine" was the number of strokes in "地下", the Chinese word for "underground".[9][19]
As envisaged by Chen Yu, the metro system of Guangzhou would consist of two lines: a north-south line that would connect Nanfang Building to Sanyuanli via Renmin Lu and Jiefang Beilu, and an east-west line that would run from Xichang to Dongshan along today's Dongfeng Lu. The two lines roughly parallelled Line 2 and Line 1 of the modern days, respectively. The east-west line was never built, while Project Nine was dedicated to the north-south line. Over ten teams of miners were recruited for a project filled with hazards and perils. Constrained by extreme scarcity of time, monetary and material resources, the ambition to build a tunnel for the metro operation was scaled back- the capability to run trolleybuses was deemed acceptable. For ¥13 million, an 8 km (5.0 mi) long tunnel was completed in 1966. The tunnel was planned to be used as an air-raid shelter and eventual metro line;[20] however, with a cross-section merely 3 m wide and 2.85 m tall, and exposed rocks and wooden trestles scattered everywhere, it was unusable for public transit. In the two decades that followed, four attempts were made to revive and expand Project Nine, first in 1970, next in 1971, then in 1974, and last in 1979. Due to lack of funds and complex geotechnical conditions, none of these efforts materialized.[9]
17 окт 2024
