China opens high speed rail line

China has opened the world’s longest high-speed rail line, which runs 1,428 miles from the country’s capital in the north to Guangzhou, an economic hub in the Pearl River delta in southern China.

The line officially opened today when a train departed from Beijing at 9am for Guangzhou. Another train left Guangzhou for Beijing an hour later.

Trains on this high-speed line will initially run at 186 mph with a total travel time of about eight hours.

Before, the fastest time between the two cities by train was more than 20 hours.

Railway is an essential part in China’s transport system, and its government plans to build a grid of high-speed railways with four east-west lines and four north-south lines by 2020.