China alone runs more than three times as much high-speed rail as the other nine countries on this list combined — roughly 48,000 km against about 14,700 km. The timeline sharpens the contrast: Japan opened the world's first high-speed line, the Tokaido Shinkansen, back in 1964, while China's first intercity high-speed line came only in 2008. Europe shows that network size has little to do with territory: Spain is about one twentieth the area of China yet operates Europe's longest high-speed network, ahead of both France and Germany. Just outside the top ten, Morocco's 186 km Al Boraq is still the only high-speed line in Africa.