A total of 35 Chinese cities (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) had rail-based transit systems in operation by the end of 2018, according to the China Association of Metros.

The combined length of the 185 urban rail transit lines in these cities has reached around 5,761 km by the end of last year.

In 2018, China completed an investment of nearly 547 billion yuan (around 81.5 billion U.S. dollars) on the construction of urban rail transport, up 14.9 percent year on year, and about 6,374 km of lines were under construction.

"China's urban rail transit has seen good growth momentum for three consecutive years," said Xie Zhengguang, president of the association.

Urban rail transit is an all-encompassing term for local rail systems, such as metros, monorail and trams.