This paper explores the principal motivations and successful experiences of the rapid development of China’s high speed railway. In the perspective of the engineering management practice, the developers have studied and made prospective mid- and long-term railway network planning, including the four east-west and four north-south corridors as the backbone, the interregional urban passenger traffic corridors and the intercity railways, with a planning scale above 16,000 km. Under the overall coordination of the government, a high speed railway technology system has been formed with the China’s characteristics, by the way of sticking to independent innovation, of combining original innovation, collaborative innovation and integrative innovation, and of attaching importance to experimental verification. The target control system and support-guarantee system were established for the high speed railway project, enacting standardized management, strengthening integration test and commissioning, conducting strict acceptance, and achieving construction management experiences on the high speed railway. Finally, this paper proposes such issues worthy of attention and further study, as the improvement of the engineering decision-making management, the enhancement of investment and financing system reform, and the promotion of professionalization and the specialization of engineering project management.