The CRH2C is a special variant of the CRH2 that was designed for a higher top speed than 250 km/h. It was possibly inspired by the Shinkansen E2-1000 that had reached a record speed of 362 km/h in April 2003, which was essentially the same model as the one on which the CRH2 was based. The improvements were carried out by Sifang and included, among others, a larger number of powered cars and bodies made from aluminum alloy.
In the first stage, 30 trains were ordered which had a top speed in service of 300 km/h. In trial runs, one even reached 394.2 km/h. In the second stage, 30 more trains followed which had a service speed of 350 km/h. These two were also marketed as CRH2-300 and CRH2-350. They were followed by the CRH2-380 or CRH380A that incorporates many more improvements.