High and medium-speed rail services are expected to connect 10 major cities between Kunming in China and Singapore. But negotiations with seven Southeast Asian countries are testing Beijing's "railway diplomacy."

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Financial Times today launched the Chicago Forum on Global Cities. This three-day forum on the future of global cities is bringing civic, business, cultural and academic leaders from London, Beijing, Paris, Dubai, Singapore and beyond to Chicago.

The most important characteristic of the 21st century is the rise of cities. The world may obsess over whether a “Chinese century” is replacing an American one. But the real action is not in nations — but in their urban centres. 

Last week state-owned China Railway Construction Corp. (CRCC) signed a lucrative contract with Nigeria to build an 870-mile coastal railroad from Lagos to Calabar, two of the West African nation’s leading cities. 

Since its early days, train travel has been shrouded in an aura of romanticism. It has become emblematic of a bygone era of epic voyages, adventures, and discovery—the excitement and possibility of accessing vast new territories.

Sri Lanka’s eastern town of Pullumalai saw the opening of a new public market and a bus station recently, which has been built with the funding support of USAID. The US Embassy in Colombo said, the US$ 477,000 facility (Rs. 60 million) will help enhance transportation and livelihood opportunities for the people living in the Eastern province.

In a recent poll conducted in Georgia by the National Democratic Institute, 68 percent of respondents expressed their approval of a Georgian pledge to reestablish their country’s railway link with Russia via the breakaway region of Abkhazia1.

The Consulate General of the Netherlands in conjunction with the City of Los Angeles and the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) are hosting ThinkBike Los Angeles, "a unique, bi-national bicycle promotion and design workshop." Teams of L.A. designers and community stakeholders will collaborate with the foreign experts on project proposals to meet L.A.'s needs as a growing bicycle-friendly city.