Construction begins on high-speed Wenzhou-Fuzhou railway line

A new high-speed railway designed to run trains at 350 kilometers per hour began construction on Monday, further expanding the nation's coastal transport corridor, the national railway operator China State Railway Group, said on Monday.

The new line, with a total length of about 303 km, will link Wenzhou in East China's Zhejiang province and Fuzhou in East China's Fujian province. The project, which has a construction period of five years, will pass through Wenzhou in Zhejiang, Ningde and Fuzhou in Fujian, with 11 stations planned along the route.

As part of the coastal passage of China's "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed rail network, the line holds key strategic significance. Stretching from Dandong in Northeast China's Liaoning province to Fangchenggang in the southern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, the 4,000-km-long coastal corridor links major economic zones including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Shandong Peninsula, and the demonstration zone for cross-Strait integrated development in Fujian.

Upon completion, the line is expected to further shorten travel time between cities in East and South China, strengthen connectivity between the Yangtze River Delta and the Greater Bay Area, and provide greater convenience for people along the route.