CHINA tied the restive far-western region of Xinjiang closer to the rest of the country Friday, opening a high-speed rail line between its remote capital and a city nearly 1,800 kilometers away.

    A bullet train capable of speeds of up to 250 kilometers an hour departed the western Chinese city of Lanzhou for Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi, with female attendants in ethnic costumes serving 622 passengers, the China Central Television (CCTV) showed.

    The line, the first connecting Xinjiang to a neighboring region stretches through rugged terrain including vast deserts, the high-altitude Qilian mountain range, an ancient section of the Great Wall and strong wind zones, slashing travel time between the two cities by half to under 12 hours, CCTV said.

    China also launched two other fast rail lines Friday, meaning more than 3,200 kilometers of high-speed track was put into use in a single day, highlighting the rapid development of the country’s network.

    The western high-speed railway comes as China is pushing a Silk Road Economic Belt to boost commercial ties with countries in Central Asia, including Kazakhstan, and ultimately to Europe.

    Also opening Friday were lines linking the prosperous southern commercial hub of Guangzhou with Guiyang in the underdeveloped province of Guizhou, and Nanning in neighboring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the Xinhua news agency reported.

    China has long boasted an extensive rail system but in recent years has pushed the development of super-fast trains that have slashed travel times between major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, and made rail travel competitive with flying.

    According to Xinhua, the line linking Gansu’s capital of Lanzhou to Urumqi is 1,776 kilometers long and its trains are designed to travel at a maximum speed of 250 kilometers an hour.

    Construction on the rail line started in November 2009, Chinese media reported previously. A section linking Urumqi and the Xinjiang city of Hami opened last month.

    Also this month, a line that cut train travel times between the commercial hubs of Shanghai and Guangzhou from 16 hours to seven began operations.

    Completion of another high-speed line linking Beijing and Lanzhou in 2017 will cut train travel times between the Chinese capital and Urumqi from 41 hours previously to just 16, Xinhua said in a report last month.

    Only begun in 1999, China’s high-speed rail network has quickly become the largest in the world, with more than 11,000 kilometers of track in service during 2013, with the total expected to reach 16,000 kilometers by 2020, according to domestic media.

    (SD-Agencies)