According to a statement by China's train maker CNR Corporation Limited on Monday, the company has finally inked a 4.11 billion yuan ($660 million) subway contract with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority recently, which was approved in October.

This landmark deal is going to put over 280 Chinese subway cars on US mass transit lines. Although just a beginning, the contract has driven CNR to aim for bigger plans. Aside from Boston, it has ambitions to sell its products to other US metropolises such as New York and Washington, DC. Besides, it has also devised a blueprint to set up a research and development center to recruit and train local workers. The production of made-in-China rolling stock is expected to be localized.

The soaring exports of China's rail projects and technologies, especially high-speed rail, have become a mascot for the Chinese economy. It has also become one of China's dazzling economic advantages in the global market since its economic transformation. After the US deal, China's rail projects and rolling stock have expanded to six continents.

However, recent years have seen China encountering many setbacks both at home and abroad while promoting its rail products and technologies.

In the global market, China's state-of-the-art railway products and technologies have encountered skepticism. Its export of high-speed rail to Africa is believed to have political strings attached. Its contracts are even thought to have been signed through bribery.

At home, after the fatal 2011 train collision in Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, bullet trains and high-speed rail have been vilified by public opinion for years. Even recently, when the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway has carried more than 100 million passengers and is expected to show profits of 1.2 billion yuan, still many people are prejudiced against it.

The road so far is simply the initial phase of a grand undertaking. These current achievements have been made by enterprising professionals and government leaders. However, the rest of the enterprise cannot be fulfilled without more domestic support.

Chinese society is plagued by naysayers. Many resentful criticisms over China's efforts of self-innovation have proven unproductive. Eventually, these verbal abusers have become beneficiaries of the development of these new technologies and products.

China's initial success in railway products and technologies in both domestic and global markets could enlighten both the Chinese people and enterprises of other fields: The former needs to reflect on their unreasonable underestimation, and the latter can draw both lessons and experiences from the journey.