China announced today it will spend $22 billion to build two of the world’s most ambitious railway-building projects - the nation’s second magnetic levitation train and a high-speed railway linking Beijing and Shanghai.

The announcements had been eagerly awaited by European and Asian makers of railway equipment, which are looking to China for potential sales as the government pushes ahead with plans to add thousands of miles of high-speed lines to its network. But China did not say what role foreign suppliers might play.

The 820-mile Beijing-Shanghai link will use wheeled trains traveling at up to 220 mph, said an announcement by the country’s top industrial planning agency, the Cabinet’s National Reform and Development Commission. By 2020, China’s entire railway network will reach 100,000 kilometers, according to the government’s long-term blueprint.

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