A bullet train runs through mountains on the Zhangjihuai High-speed Railway. (Photo provided by the China Railway Guangzhou Group)

A special chartered train for migrant workers. (Photo provided by the China Railway Guangzhou Group)

December 6 marked the first anniversary of the opening and operation of the Zhangjiajie-Jishou-Huaihua (Zhangjihuai) High-speed Railway. The railway handled 5.54 million passenger trips over the past year, with an average of 480 pairs of trains operated monthly, according to the China Railway Guangzhou Group.

This rail line put an end to the history of unavailability of high-speed train service in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture. It facilitated travels of the people living along the line, and brought about changes and opportunities of tourism resource development and rural revitalization. It speeds up Xiangxi's development.

Xiangxi is located at the junction of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou, and in the back-land of Wuling Mountainous area, which resulted in obstacles to transportation and communication. In the past, at least 5 hours were needed to drive from Jishou to Changsha. Today, thanks to the Zhangjihuai High-speed Railway, the travel time has been shortened to less than 2 hours. Xiangxi has joined in the national high-speed railway circle.

This speedy, safe, and convenient railway provides an ideal option for people to travel easily. Data shows that, the number of trains operated on the line increased from 24 a day at the beginning to 101 on peak day, while the daily passenger trips surged from 5,000 to a peak of 47,000.

Xiangxi has profound cultural and historical deposit, distinctive folk customs, and spectacular natural landscapes. The Zhangjihuai High-speed Railway, as a regional link of China's "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railway network, connects with the Qianjiang-Changde, Shanghai-Kunming, and Huaihua-Hengyang railways. It passes through dozens of A-class scenic areas and hundreds of world-class and national ecological and cultural tourism attractions, forming a golden travel route.

Data shows that, thanks to the opening of the Zhangjihuai Railway, travelers to Xiangxi increase by 52.2% and the ticket sale rose 82.9%. In this October, Zhangjiajie, Jishou and Huaihua jointly launched a high-speed rail travel promotion campaign, and discounted tickets were offered at 41 scenic spots along the line. New opportunities were created for the development of Xiangxi's cultural tourism industry.

Zhangjihuai Railway is a key project of China's transportation infrastructure-oriented poverty alleviation plan. Since starting construction in late 2016, the project employed 4,434 local labors, and trained more than 12,000 local workers. Beyond that, 244 construction roads, 86 wells, and 26 communication base stations have been built and can be used permanently in accordance with local layout. These helped drive the new urbanization progress and industrial transformation and upgrading.

The Zhangjihuai High-speed railway narrows the gap between Xiangxi and the outside world, benefits the local people, and leads a leap of social development. 

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Pang Yuehui

Chinese source: Voice of Hunan