China's first domestically-made magnetic levitation (maglev) train rolled off the production line on Aug. 14, 2001, making it the third country in the world with maglev train technologies after Germany and Japan.
Completed in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin province, the train had an operational speed of 60 kilometers per hour and could travel as fast as 100 kilometers per hour.
It rode eight to ten millimeters above the rail and was driven by a liner motor. As there was no mechanical friction between the rail and the train, the vehicle enjoyed multiple advantages such as stable operation, low noises, and no pollution.
The train was jointly developed by Southwest Jiaotong University, CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co., Ltd, and CRRC Zhuzhou Institute, and was manufactured for the Qingchengshan maglev demonstration line in southwest China's Sichuan Province.