China today inaugurated world’s longest high-speed rail route linking its capital Beijing with the southern metropolis of Guangzhou, covering a distance of 2,298 kms.

Running at an average speed of 300 km per hour, the bullet train will save nearly 12 hours by bringing down the travel time between Beijing and Guangzhou from more than 20 hours to around eight.

With the opening of the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railroad, China now has a network of more than 9,300 km of operating high-speed railways.

This is the longest high speed network China launched after the Beijing-Shanghai Bullet train last year, which brought down travel time to around five hours, covering over 1300 km distance between two of China’s largest cities.

The new train covers Beijing with China’s most industrialised province Guangdong which houses top developed cities like Guangzhou close to Hong Kong and Maccau.

The line is expected to be extended to Hong Kong by 2015.

Designed to support a maximum speed of 350 km per hour, the route connects five provinces and has 35 stops in major cities, including Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Wuhan and Changsha.

Zhao Chunlei, a senior official in charge of transportation of the Railway Ministry said tickets of the train on this route are priced to meet the demands of different people, and fares will fluctuate under market forces.

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