Next week, however, some of the trains will be permitted to run at 350km/h, shaving nearly an hour off the journey time between Beijing and Shanghai.
That follows the introduction of an improved monitoring system that will slow and stop the trains in the event of an emergency.
As can be seen from this infographic compiled from GoEuro data, China’s trains have the highest operating speed of any fleet worldwide, beating the French TGV and Japanese SCMaglev.
When it comes to the record books, the latter does hold the world speed record at a blistering 603km/h.