The first leg of a new high-speed railway in far-western Xinjiang was formally opened on Sunday, making it the first high-speed service in the region.
The 530-kilometer rail, with speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour, cuts travel times between regional capital city Urumqi and Hami, a city in eastern Xinjiang, by half to three hours, according to a Xinhua report.
The Urumqi-Hami railway is the first section of the 1,776-kilometer Lanxin high-speed railway linking Urumqi with Lanzhou, capital Gansu Province, which will begin service by the end of this year.
A high-speed connection between Urumqi and Beijing is also expected to open in 2017, and will see travel times reduced from 41 to just 16 hours.
The new rail line, which began construction in 2009, is seen by the central government as an important milestone in efforts to fuel development in the troubled but resource-rich far west, and to improve the region's connectivity with the rest of the country.
Expect (nay, demand) good looking and well-choreographed train staff
If you catch staff not smiling beguilingly, ethnic dancers will flood the carriage as compensation
Passengers carrying torso-sized portraits of Mao can expect a 49% discount
President Xi Jinping pledged earlier this month to invest USD40 billion into a Silk Road Fund to improve infrastructure links across the Asia-Pacific.
According to the government’s blueprint, an important part of the Silk Road strategy is to drive broad- based development in border regions like Xinjiang, Tibet and Yunnan through the development of high-speed rail and international ports.
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