Guangzhou, perhaps more familiar by its anglicised name of Canton, is a port megacity in Southern China. It sits alongside Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and several other cities in the Asian economic powerhouse that is Pearl River Delta, its metropolitan population of 32 million making up over a third of the Delta’s 86 million inhabitants. An important hub for the movement of people and goods since at least the second century BCE, it’s only fitting that Guangzhou boasts a brand new railway station of truly monumental scale.
As China continues to build new standard and high-speed railway infrastructure at rates far greater than other countries, it is now at the forefront of high capacity railway infrastructure and station design. Covering 453,000 square meters, two and a half times the size of Wembley Stadium, the massive Guangzhou Baiyun Railway Station has been built as the new passenger rail hub for the Guangdong region and beyond. It commenced operations on December 26, 2023 and has 21 tracks serving 21 passenger platforms.
It will also anchor one of Asia’s largest transit-oriented development (TOD) hubs. To accommodate the city’s and region’s massive population growth, as well as China’s rapidly expanding high speed railway network, this station as part of the coordinated citywide railway expansion program.
From Freight Hub to High Speed Rail Hub
Baiyun replaces the original Tangxia Railway Station, opened in 1916 during the Republic of China era. Twenty years later, it gained a connection to the Canton-Kowloon Railway, thus becoming a junction station with service to Hong Kong. By the 1950s the station was mostly used for freight and mail traffic, and with China’s manufacturing boom, Guangzhou as a manufacturing centre massively increased its freight capacity.
By the 2010s, rapid growth in China’s passenger railway travel meant the city’s two main railway stations, Guangzhou East and Guangzhou, were soon over capacity. In 2016, over 117 million intercity train passengers used Guangzhou railway stations. That same year, the government approved a transportation masterplan to massively increase the capacity of the intercity rail station network in the city. When Guangzhou Baiyun Railway Station is fully completed, all trains bound for Guangzhou East and Guangzhou Stations will be diverted there. Both of these stations will then be completely rebuilt into much higher capacity facilities to help handle the country’s booming inter-city passenger railway network.
Construction of the renamed Guangzhou Baiyun Station started in 2018 – Baiyun being the district in which the station is located, and 1.5 km north of the existing Tangxia Station.
China’s new Design Paradigm for Railway Station Environments
I head north to weave through the urban villages surrounding the new station, where buildings are packed wall to wall on all four sides. The wholesale redevelopment of districts and erection of new large rail stations gives some of the flavour of similar changes that occurred in the UK’s large cities in the 19th century. Passing through alleys as I approach the station I see the station corner towers under construction.
The station rises in the background with road connections under construction, with airport style and capacity ramps for passenger drop off and pick up:
The design of Guangzhou Baiyun Station is unique in China. Typically, railway stations there have a large square on both sides sandwiching what essentially is a giant mall over railway platforms. Guangzhou Baiyun Station, on the other hand, was designed as continuous integrated podium embedded in an elevated plaza, linking to newly constructed neighbouring buildings packed tightly around the station. This includes some office towers on each corner of the station complex. The station will host various high speed, intercity, regional, and local railway lines.
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Metro Access is Improving
To bring in and disperse these railway passengers, the station is presently served by Guangzhou Metro line 8’s Shitan station via a long 700m tunnel walkway, and an out of station interchange with Julong station further south. The station boxes for Metro lines 12 and 24, and Express Metro Line 22 are under construction beneath the two east side corner towers, to integrate directly into the station complex.
The lack of close connection is indicated by Guangzhou Baiyun Station floating above Shitan Station on the Line 8 strip map:
Julong station is planned to be an interchange with Line 12, with pre-built provision for interchange, like these placeholder stairwells for a transfer from Line 8 to Line 12 below:
A Cathedral to Train Travel
Instead of being an inter-faith cathedral, it is an inter-modal one – hosting the aforementioned local, regional, and high speed trains, local and high speed metro lines, as well as buses.
Trainspotters are also able to see plentiful train action at the far end of the Departures Level plaza:
The extremely high ceiling is like a Brobdingnagian building that makes humans look Lilliputian:
The station consists of seven levels:
| 3F Level | Shops restaurants and business areas |
| 2F Level | Departure Hall, ticket offices, Waiting Room, north and south entrances, taxi rank, and passenger drop-off |
| 1F Level | Entrance/exits, ticket offices, high-speed train Departures and Arrivals train platforms |
| B1 Level | Parking (!) |
| B2 Level | Bus Station, transfer level |
| B3 Level | Metro station entrance |
| B4 Level | Metro line platforms |
Guangzhou Baiyun Station is reminscent of the similarly overscale Kyoto Railway Station complex in Japan:
Footfall at Guangzhou Baiyun Railway Station will pick up as trains will temporarily shift there when Guangzhou and Guangzhou East railway stations close down for a bottom to top rebuild.
Prototype of a new large Railway Station Model?
To put this station, and China’s high speed railway network, into context, Japan’s Shinkansen network is basically just a line up and down the country. Whereas the China’s high speed railway system is a vast continental network – many of the high speed lines have trains every 3-4 min, which requires massive stations to handle the volume of passengers.
Guangzhou Baiyun railway station could be the prototype of the country’s new railway station philosophy – embedding new and upgraded stations in dense office, retail, and residential complexes. It might also point to further station mega-structures, taking cues from airports for capacity, passenger flows, and amenities. We shall see which model is followed when the city’s Guangzhou and Guangzhou East railway stations are rebuilt. And how all three stations handle the crush of railway and Metro passengers in the coming decades.
All photos by JR Urbane Network unless otherwise noted.
People in China have divided railway station design into 4 generations since the civil war. The classic examples are: 1st gen – Beijing (1959), 2nd gen – Shanghai (1987), 3rd gen – mega HSR stations of the late 2000s and 2010s, and 4th gen – Hangzhou West (2022) and Guangzhou Baiyun (as in this excellent piece, 2023). Indeed, the most predominant PR feature of the 4th gen is integration into nearby urban development.
Train journeys under China Railway are predominantly long-distance or intercity in nature; commuting by national rail is almost nonexistent. It remains to be seen whether a change in the philosophy of station design would also prompt a change in the philosophy of operations.
I do hope the emergency evacuation procedures are suitably ample for these gigantic stations!
I went to Japan in March, having never ventured into a modern Asian economy with HSR. Having only been to Singapore and Indonesia. As a keen railway enthusiast, the shear scale of some of the stations (e.g. Osaka) but even the smaller metro stations with malls was absolutely breath-taking. It’s a shame that the potential for true urban place mapping is ‘tunnel-visioned out’. I can only imagine what a multi-level through station could look/feel like in Manchester for NPR/HS2.