Beijing-Shanghai express railway starts construction

China's Ministry of Railway announced that the Beijing-Shanghai express railway started construction on Friday, a project designed to ease the transportation pressure of developed districts in China.

The 1,318 km-long railway, including 21 stop stations, will be completed in the year 2013, running at designed speeds of 300 km to 350 km per hour. And the travel time between the two cities will be reduced from around 10 hours at present to about 5 hours. It was estimated to handle 160 million passengers per year after completion.

The express railway, with total investment of about RMB 220.9 billion, will be the longest express railway with the highest standard all around the world. Meanwhile, this is one of China's biggest investment and construction projects since 1949.

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao attended the ground-breaking ceremony of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway in Beijing.