China’s Chengdu-Guiyang Railway officially entered service on Monday. The 648-kilometer railway linking Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province and Guiyang, capital of Guizhou Province has a maximum speed of 250 kilometers per hour.

Photo: Xinhua

The Chengdu-Guiyang high-speed rail line, a largely mountainous journey, is an important part of China's ambitious plan to build a high-speed railway network across the country, as both cities are known as transport hubs in southwest China, providing vast numbers of passengers in the region a speedy pathway to the eastern and southern coastal regions.

Due to the mountainous terrain of the region, about 85 percent of the 648-km-long railway tracks were built on elevated bridges or through tunnels.

"In terms of geological conditions, the Chengdu-Guiyang high-speed rail line is one of the most complicated passenger rail projects in China's mountainous regions," said Zheng Tao, a designer with China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group.

Zheng said completion of the rail line attests to China's advanced know-how in high-speed railway construction, citing engineering feats in the project including ballastless slab track, a long-span steel-concrete basket arch bridge and a steel tube-concrete swivel arch bridge.

Yibin in Sichuan, Shaotong in Yunnan and Bijie in Guizhou, cities that boast abundant cultural and mineral resources, will embrace their first high-speed rail line. The railway will also contribute to tourism, mineral exploitation, poverty alleviation, and China's strategy to develop the western region.

(Compiled by Shen Feng; with input from Xinhua)