High Speed Rail Linking Shanghai and Kunming Now Open

By Lauren Hogan

On Thursday, a high speed rail linking Shanghai and Kunming officially opened.

At 2,252km long, it is one of the longest rails in the world, the longest in China traveling east-to-west (the north-to-south Beijing to Guangzhou line is slightly longer at 2,298km), and raeches a maximum speed of 330kph.

The rail taps provinces: Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan, cutting the travel time from Shanghai to Yunnan from 34 hours to just 11.

Along with the opening of this rail, another line opened yesterday, which links Kunming wtih Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Hoping for a toursim boost with the new lines, considering Yunnan does border trading with Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, those countries are expected to get a push as well.

[Image via Shanghai Daily]

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