China’s ambitious plan to build more high-speed rail lines connecting smaller cities has generated regional competition and rivalry between cites rushing to win train stops on their doorsteps. Jingzhou and Jingmei, two cities in Hubei about 100 kilometers away from each other, have launched heated campaigns *vying for a stop on a new line. Similar competition has also taken place in Hunan and Henan. Commentator Liu Xuesong writes on qq.com that in some cases the fierce competition has resulted in stops being designed in “in-between” locations as a compromise. Such compromise often *disregards the best scientific or economic calculations. Some of the stations ended up being far from urban centers, dramatically increasing construction costs and passengers’ inconvenience.