Breaking News English

The longest railway in the world opened on Wednesday. The line China's capital Beijing with the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. The line is 2,298 kilometers long and across half of China. The first train left Beijing station at 9 a.m. and in Guangzhou eight hours later. The super-fast train travels at an speed of 300 kph and the journey time from 20 hours to just eight. It at 35 different cities along its . A total of 310 trains will run between the two cities each day. A one- ticket for the journey costs US$138. China's government hopes the train will help the country's economy as business people can now travel the country a lot quicker.

Chinese say the bullet train service started on 26 December to commemorate the of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong. The train is also a of China's plan to become the world's leader in high-speed rail travel. It already has 8,600 km of high-speed railway , which is more than any other country in the world. It to this to 16,000 km by 2015 and 50,000 km by 2020. China Ministry of Railways spokesman Zhou Li told reporters: "The of the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed line shows China's high-speed railway network has started to take ." A passenger who travelled on the first train explained how she was of the train, saying: "It's amazing China has developed quickly".