High-speed train to boost Winter Games preparations

THE BEIJING-ZHANGJIAKOU HIGH-SPEED RAILWAY, which started operations on Monday, will not only provide excellent transportation service for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games but also boost the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. China Daily writer Wang Yiqing comments:

China's first intelligent high-speed railway linking Beijing with Zhangjiakou started operations exactly 110 years after the country's first independently built railway linked the two cities.

On Monday, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed train crossed a milestone in automated railway development, running at 350 kilometers per hour. The 174-kilometer high-speed railway track links Beijing with Zhangjiakou, both host cities of the 2022 Winter Olympics. The major transportation project for the Winter Games will reduce travel time between the two cities from more than three hours to just 47 minutes. By providing such rapid and convenient hi-tech transportation for the athletes and spectators during the Games, the railway will showcase China's remarkable achievements in railway construction to the world.

The Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway is an important part of the railway network linking Beijing with Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province. Its operation, apart from improving China's overall railway network, is of great significance to the integrative development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Hebei, especially its northwestern area, lags far behind Beijing and Tianjin in terms of economic development. Zhangjiakou and its surrounding areas have potential for tourism and agriculture industry development that can be expedited by the high-speed railway, as it will reduce the transportation cost and time.

Incorporating Hebei's northwestern area into the "one hour transportation circle" around the capital will help extend Beijing's economic drive to the northwestern Hebei.

Apart from helping promote tourism and leisure industries there, the reduced transportation time will also boost the construction of the Winter Olympics-related industry in Zhangjiakou and surrounding areas.