China's Winter Olympic high-speed railway opens
Updated 10:15, 30-Dec-2019
CGTN
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A high-speed railway will open on Monday between China's capital Beijing and Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, the two venues for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.
It will be the world's first high-speed railway on which self-driving trains reach speeds of up to 350 kilometers per hour.
The 174-km long railway line is a major project for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The line will shorten the trip between the two host cities from over three hours to only 47 minutes, according to China Railway Corporation.
It will transport passengers in about one hour from Beijing to Zhangjiakou's Chongli District, where the 2022 Winter Olympic village is located.
The train is also designed with an area to store snowboards, a device to secure wheelchairs, and a mobile news center, where passengers can watch live Olympic broadcasts.
The line has 10 stations, five in Beijing and the others in Hebei Province. They include one at the Badaling section of the Great Wall, and it has the world's deepest railway station structure at 102 meters underground.
Construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway began in the first half of 2016. The railway underwent test runs earlier this month.
After it begins operation on Monday, it will also connect with the Zhangjiakou-Hohhot high-speed railway, cutting travel time from Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to Beijing to two hours down from nine.
China Railway Corporation said that it is also part of the route linking Beijing to northwest China on fast-speed tracks.
Chongli railway, a branch line of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway, will also start service on Monday. It is 53-km long, with a maximum design speed of 250 kph.
Tickets sales began Saturday on the the corporation's website and app.
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