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It is reported that a record-breaking
high-speed rail will connect Inner Mongolia in the north to Hainan in the
south. According to the Shaanxi Development and Reform Commission,
the proposed line
will operate at a speed of 350 kilometers per hour(217 mph).
Beginning in Inner Mongolia's Baotou city and
running through southern Shaanxi, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi and Guangdong,
its final stop
would be in Haikou city on Hainan Island, China's southernmost province.
Though the exact length of the proposed route
has not been released, it will likely become the world's
longest high-speed rail line as the journey by road between Baotou and Haikou
is approximately 3, 000 kilometers(1, 864 miles) long. Currently, the world's longest high-speed rail
line is almost 2, 300 kilometers long (1, 429 miles), running from Beijing to Guangzhou.
The
proposed rail is part of China's aim to create another "Silk Road of the
21st Century" and improve the country's transportation network while
driving land development and urbanization(城市化)
in some provincial areas.
Many of the provinces through which the
high-speed trains will travel are near major bodies of water,
such as the Yellow
River in Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi province, the Yangtzi River in Hubei and the
South China Sea, where the line would end. It will also take passengers to
popular tourist attractions including Zhangjiajie, Xi'an, Guilin and minority areas in western
Hunan and Hubei.
"The country is now shifting its focus
and investing in the western regions and economically underdeveloped areas,
making up for
China's long debt to these areas, " Tan yuzhi,
professor of the
School of Economics and Management at Hubei University for Nationalities,
told local media. " The project will significantly
narrow regional disparities(差异)
and solve minority issues."
However, Deng Hongbing, director of China University of
Geosciences' Center for Regional Economic and Investment Center,
said that if the
north-to-south railway is to go ahead, there needs to be a sound ecological
program in place to ensure the protection of these underdeveloped and
ecologically sensitive areas.