DALIAN, China -- High-speed-rail operator China State Railway Group continues apace with its building despite its ballooning debt, backed by a government that views it as the perfect vehicle to bolster a sagging economy.
"No one is expecting our city to prosper just because we get a new line," said a worker at a grocery store near a train station in Chaoyang, in the northeastern province of Liaoning. Opened in 2018, the station sits in a sleepy area with low passenger traffic and almost no nearby retail shops or hotels. Yet it will host additional service come July.