The first high-speed railway in China's northwest Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region started operating on Sunday with the D8602 train leaving the south station of Urumqi, capital city of the region, at 11 am.

The fully-loaded CRH5A bullet train, running at an average speed of 200 kilometers per hour, will take about three hours to reach Hami, 530 kilometers away.

On the first day, three pairs of trains will operate between Urumqi and Hami. The frequency will increase to four from Monday.

Passengers can buy tickets from stations along the route, including Urumqi south, Turpan north, Shanshan north, Tuha and Hami. Telephone and online purchase are also available. For first-class seat, the ticket is 196 yuan and 163.5 yuan for second-class seat.

The section from Urumqi to Hami is a part of the 1,776-km newly constructed Lanzhou-Urumqi section, which will be fully put into use at the end of this year. It will reduce the travel time from Urumqi to Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province, by half, about nine hours. People from Urumqi will be able to travel to Beijing by train in 16 hours instead of 40 after the high-speed link between the two cities is completed in 2017.

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