According to China’s railway authorities, the high speed line connecting Beijing to Shanghai has carried over 100 million passengers since it was put into operation in June 2011.

The 1,328-kilometre line, built at a cost of 217.3 billion yuan (34.7 billion dollars), has reduced journey times between Beijing and Shanghai from at least eight hours to just five.
The high speed line from Beijing to Guangzhou, the world’s longest high speed line of its kind, opened for commercial service in December – bringing the total distance covered by China’s high speed railway system to more than 9,300 km.

Investment and construction in China’s railway sector rebounded in 2012 when the country set the aim of building a national railway network of around 120,000 km by 2015, including 18,000 km of high speed lines.

(Source: Xinhua)