Longest High Speed Rail Line Opens in China

Travel time between the Chinese capital Beijing and the major commercial centre of Guangzhou in the south of the country has been halved to just 8 hours with the opening of the world’s longest high speed railway line, says the Chinese News Agency Xinhua.

The high speed line stretches 2298 km (1428 miles), and spans half the country. Trains on the new line travel at 186 miles per hour, stopping at 35 stops including provincial capitals Shijiazhuang, Wuhan and Changsha. The line opened on 26 December 2012 to commemorate the birth of former leader Mao Zedong.

Guangzhou, formerly known as Canton, is the capital of Guangdong province and lies 75 miles northwest of Hong Kong. As of 2010 the city had a population of 12.78 million, and was named as a Beta World City by the Globalisation and World Cities Research Network as a major city linking to the world economy.