Anchor: Construction on the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway has kicked off. The railway will be the longest one in the world built to the highest standards when it completes construction in five years. The travel time between the two cities then will be shortened to 5 hours from the current 10 hours. Our reporter Michael Lee has the details.

Reporter:
"Jing Hu gao su tie lu, quan xian kai gong!"

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced the start of construction on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway.

The 1,318-kilometer line is the largest construction project since the founding of the People's Republic of China. The total investment will be 220 billion yuan, or 31 billion U.S. dollars for this railway. Its designed speed is 350 kilometers per hour.

The railway will connect seven provinces and municipalities, namely Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shanghai. These regions contribute to 40 percent of the whole country's GDP.

Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Dejiang said that the building of this railway has significant meaning.

"The building of such a state-of-the art railway within an area with the highest density population, transportation demand, education level, and GDP in China will ease the pressure on the existing railway, enhance the country's ability to renovate, promote adjustments in the structure of industry, and boost economic development in a fast and healthy way."

The current Beijing-Shanghai railway has a history of over 100 years, but it can no longer meet the growing demands for passenger transportation. The current density of passenger traffic has reached 48 million people per kilometer and the density of cargo transportation has reached 63 million tons per kilometer. These two figures are 5.2 times and 2.1 times as much as the national average.

The new high-speed railway will radically resolve the problem.

In recent years, China has conducted more than 400 technological tests in preparation for the high-speed railway, and has already overcome a series of technical difficulties. All the technological equipment for the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is designed and produced by domestic enterprises. Lu Chunfang, the vice-minister of the Ministry of Railways said that the building of this railway will help to perfect the technology of China's high-speed railway system.

"Building the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway with its cutting-edge technology will raise the level of modernization for China's railways. It can also boost the development of related industries such as mechanics, electronics, materials and information."

Currently, about 10 thousand kilometers of high-speed railways are in operation around the world and more than 10 thousand kilometers of high-speed railways are under construction.

Michael Lee, CRI News.