Proposals for two new railway links to Xiamen have been ratified
by the National Development and Reform Commission, according
to Shanghai Daily today.
One is a 493km link between Xiamen and Shenzhen which will allow
passenger trains to run at 200 kilometers an hour and cost 24.75
billion yuan (US$3.06 billion) to build.
The other, a 171km link between Xiamen and Longyan, will cost 6
billion yuan and allow trains to travel at the same speed, Xinhua
said.
With the ongoing construction of a railway linking Fuzhou and
Xiamen, the approval to build the Xiamen-Shenzhen line is expected
to make Xiamen a major center between the two big economic regions:
Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, Xinhua said, citing
the Xiamen Development and Reform Commission.
The Xiamen-Longyan railway, which will connect to the
Beijing-Kowloon railway, will boost the city's ties with inland
cities, especially those in Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi
provinces.
(Shanghai Daily January 4, 2006)