Track-laying has begun in the Xuchang, Henan province, section of the Shijiazhuang-Wuhan high-speed railway. The entire 848km line will be finished at the end of 2011, connecting Shijiazhuang in northern Hebei province and Wuhan in central Hubei province. Trains will be able to run at 350kph.

China already operates the world’s longest high-speed railway network with a combined length of 7,531km, according to China’s Railways Minister Liu Zhijun. He was speaking at the Seventh World Congress on High-Speed Rail, the first time the congress has been held outside Europe.