Global Courant
BEIJING – China has launched its first high-speed rail line that will pass through several bays and skim the coast of southeastern Fujian province near the Taiwan Strait, state media reported Thursday.
A bullet train departed from Fuzhou, the capital of eastern China’s Fujian province, on Thursday morning, marking the opening of the 277km Fuzhou-Xiamen-Zhangzhou railway, Xinhua reported.
It is China’s first high-speed sea line with bullet trains that will run over bridges over three coastal bays and reach a top speed of 350 kilometers per hour, state media said, citing China State Railway Group Co, the country’s railway company.
Travel time between Fuzhou and Xiamen, an economic center and popular tourist destination, will be less than an hour.
China Railway Siyuan Survey and Design Group Co Ltd designed the railway project. As of 2022, China had 42,000 km of operational high-speed railway, and the length of the high-speed railway that regularly runs at a speed of 350 km per hour reached nearly 3,200 km in June 2022.
China recently announced details of its plan to make Fujian a zone for integrated development with Taiwan, which lies across the province.
China hopes the link will expand investment opportunities and make travel easier.
A Chinese government official said an integrated multi-dimensional transportation network has been built in Fujian that “will make it technically possible to build a high-speed transportation passage connecting the province with Taiwan,” according to state media.
In addition, China unveiled its first commercial suspended monorail line in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, earlier this week.
The monorail, which covers a distance of 10.5 km, is fully automated and only requires human operation in case of emergency, China Daily reported. REUTERS
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