[photopress:cross_sea_train.jpg,full,alignright]China’s national rail-ferry network has been extended to the country’s southernmost city of Sanya, on the island of Hainan. Sanya’s inclusion comes after the completion of a 364-kilometer rail link with Haikou, capital of Hainan Province. (Note that there is ferry involved. Many puzzled queries on the Internet as to whether a railway bridge had been built between Hainan and the mainland. No. The train crosses by ferry.)
The new Guangdong-Hainan Railway is a vital part of the railway network in China now linking, by ferry, Hainan with the Beijing-Kowloon Railway, the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, and the Nanning-Kunming Railway. At its opening this month much was made of its potential effect on tourism. Yang Zhekun, the director of the Hainan Institute of Tourism, said, ‘The railway offers travelers a secure, economical and timely way to come to Hainan, which will boost the marketing of local tourism.’
There are two major benefits. The first is tourism. In 2006, 15 million tourists visited Hainan with the figures growing at an annual rate of 24%. The second benefit is freight. The new service is expected to carry up to 10 million tons of freight a year.
Time to Guangzhou is 15 hours, Shanghai 36.5 hours and Beijing 35 hours. The renovation of the rail link to Sanya, begun in June last year, cost EMB2.3 billion funded by the provincial government and the Ministry of Railways.
Source: English People’s Daily Online