For the first time, visually impaired passengers in China will be allowed to take guide dogs onto trains from May 1, according to new rules announced today.
China Railway Corporation made the rules after joint studies with the China Disabled Persons' Federation in an effort to improve barrier-free services to the disabled.
Visually impaired passengers can tell train stations their needs to ride with guide dogs when buying tickets, or calling the railway customer service center 12 hours before train departure.
Passengers can also seek help from staff at stations if they fail to contact the service center in advance, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
When entering a railway station, visually impaired passengers should show their identity cards, disability certificates, as well as certificates for service dogs and for animal health and immunity.
Last year, Beijing approved a regulation that allows visually impaired passengers to take their guide dogs onto subway from May 1.
China accounts for about 18 per cent of the world's blind. The country is estimated to have the largest number of blind people in the world - around 5 million. By definition, these people cannot walk about unaided, according to figures from the World Health Organisation.
Rail transport is an important mode of long-distance transportation in China. As of 2014, the country had some 112,000 km of railways, the third longest network in the world, including 16,000 kilometres of high-speed rail (HSR), the longest HSR network in the world.
