With the last set of train tracks placed on May 27, the high-speed railway (HSR) between Chengdu and Guiyang has reached Zhengxiong County in northeast Yunnan’s Zhaotong.

At noon that day, more engineering vehicles approached the construction site, and railway builders kicked off their celebration. The vehicles carried rails that could be as long as hundreds of meters.

The entire track-laying project between Chengdu and Guiyang is planned to be accomplished by August 30, and high-speed trains will be in operation by the end of 2019, after a number of testing.

This means that not only the counties of Zhengxiong and Weixin, but also the Zhaotong area as a whole, will enter a new era of bullet trains by then.

With a total length of 632.6 kilometers, the Chengdu-Guiyang railroad is constructed and run by stages. 

The line between Chengdu to Leshan in Sichuan province was accomplished in 2014, and construction of the Leshan-Guiyang section was launched in December 2013.

Passing numerous cities and prefectures, the 515-kilometer railway terminates at Guiyangdong Railway Station, with designed speed of 250 km/h. The track-laying is undertaken by China Railway Construction Group (CRCG).

When it’s completed, the Chengdu-Guiyang railway will link up the Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, which can be better connected to the Yangtze river delta and the Pearl river delta. 

The new railway also joins the existing railroads to form a rail network in southwestern China. And the network will play a pivotal role in poverty alleviation and socioeconomic development in the nearby localities, including Zhengxiong and Weixin.

Reporting by Xie Yi, Wu Changbin, Zhang Jie and Zhuang Tingting (Yunnan Net); trans-editing by Wang Jingzhong