Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway Operates Trial Runs

Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway, the fastest and longest rail in China and the world, has begun one-month trial runs since May 11th and it is expected to take passengers in late June 2011.

Speed and Travel Time

Running at a speed of 350 km per hour, the first trial CRH (China Railway High-speed ) train only took 4.8 hours to finish the journey, announced an official from the Ministry of Railways of China. He also added that CRH trains would run 300 km or 250 km an hour when they began to deliver passengers and it would cut Beijing-Shanghai travel time from 10 hours down to 5 hours.

En Route Stations

The high-speed rail starts from Beijing South Railway Station and ends at Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station, connecting the two most important cities of China. Also passing Tianjin, Hebei Province, Shandong Province, Anhui Province, and Jiangsu Province, the rail totally links 20 cities in eastern China including 4 provincial capitals of Tianjin, Jinan, Nanjing, and Shanghai.

There are 21 stations along Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway (from north to south, Beijing South, Langfang, Tianjin West, Tianjin South, Cangzhou West, Dezhou East, Jinan West, Mt. Taishan East, Zaozhuang West, Xuzhou East, Suzhou East, Bangbu South, Chuzhou South Nanjing South, Zhenjiang East, Changzhou North, Wuxi East, Suzhou North, Kunshan South, Shanghai Hongqiao)

Ticket Price

There will be two kinds of tickets for Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Rail: one kind for trains running 300 km an hour, the other for those running at a speed of 250 km per hour. The rail administrative committee has not rated the exact prices yet. However, a ticket is estimated to cost about 600 RMB to 800 RMB.

How to Book

Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway will implement an ID-based ticket booking system. So travelers need to take their ID for booking and boarding. They can buy the tickets at railway station ticket offices directly, or they can book via the use of automatic ticketing machines inside the station. Business travelers could resort to travel agents for tickets, which is assuring and time-saving.

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