China Daily: “With 3,500 kilometers of new high-speed railways expected to be put into use this year, the length of China’s high-speed railways will exceed 10,000 kilometers, a senior railway official said.
…
One of the four arteries, the Beijing-Shanghai line, opened in June. The others will connect Beijing and Guangzhou in South China, Beijing and Harbin in Northeast China, and cities on the southeast coast with high-speed railways.”
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-02/17/content_14631260.htm
The official reason for the delay was funding shortages. That may be so, but another reason was the high profile crash in July 2011 at Wenzhou due to design fault and, possibly, human error. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-12/29/content_14346798.htm
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 