China opens Fuzhou-Pingtan railway to boost cross-strait travel

A bullet train stops at the Pingtan station in Pingtan, east China's Fujian Province. [Photo: CFP]

The Fuzhou-Pingtan railway (铁路 tiělù) in east China's Fujian Province went into operation (使用 shǐyòng) Saturday morning after seven years of construction (建设 jiànshè), allowing visitors from the Chinese mainland and China's Taiwan to travel more conveniently across the Taiwan Straits.

People take the high speed train from Fuzhou to Pingtan. [Photo: CFP]

The 88-kilometer railway, designed (设计 shèjì) to support high-speed trains running at a speed of up to 200 km per hour, connects (连接 liánjiē) the provincial capital of Fuzhou with the largest island in the province, which is the nearest place in the Chinese mainland to Taiwan Island, only 68 nautical miles (about 126 km) away from Hsinchu City.

A bullet train runs on the Pingtan Strait Road-Rail Bridge in Pingtan, east China's Fujian Province.[Photo: CFP]

Thanks to bullet trains running on the Pingtan Strait Road-Rail Bridge, it now only takes around half an hour for residents and visitors to commute (通勤 tōngqín) between both places. The 16.3-kilometer-long bridge, with a six-lane highway on top (上层 shàngcéng) and a high-speed railway at bottom (下层 xiàcéng), is China's first and the world's longest cross-sea road-rail bridge.

A child looks at the views out of the train window. [Photo: CFP]

The new railway will link the island county with major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen through the transportation hub in Fuzhou, according to Li Fei, an official with the China Railway Nanchang Group Co., Ltd.

重点词汇 Key word：

使用<动词 v.> use; employ

E.g.Zhège jīchǎng jǐn gōng jǐnjí shǐyòng.

这个机场仅供紧急使用。

This airport is for emergency use only.

Zhè běn zìdiǎn shǐyòng qǐlái hěn fāngbiàn.

这本字典使用起来很方便。

This dictionary is very easy to use.