China Railway CRH2

The China Railway CRH2, sold under the Hexie name meaning Harmony, is a family of electric high-speed trains in China whose design comes from the Japanese E2-1000 Series Shinkansen. China's Ministry of Railways ordered an initial 60 sets of the CRH2A from Kawasaki Heavy Industries on 20 October 2004. The first three were built in Japan, the next six arrived as knock-down kits and were assembled by Sifang, and the remaining 51 were built by Sifang through technology transfer. The first train reached Qingdao port in March 2006 and high-speed service began on 18 April 2007. Sifang then developed versions of its own: the 16-car CRH2B, the CRH2C for 300 and later 350 kilometres an hour, the CRH2E sleeper trains and the CRH2G for cold and sandstorm conditions, and the platform was also the base of the CRH380A. Later production sets are designed and made by Sifang alone.