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The longest railway line in the world opened on Wednesday. The line [joints / joins] China’s capital Beijing with the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. The line is 2,298 kilometers long and [stretching / stretches] across half of China. The first train left Beijing station at 9 a.m. and [arrived / arrival] in Guangzhou eight hours later. The super-fast train travels at an [overage / average] speed of 300 kph and cuts the [journey / journeys] time from 20 hours to just eight. It [stops / stopping] at 35 different cities along its [route / root] . A total of 310 trains will run between the two cities each day. A [one-way / one-weigh] for the journey costs US$138. China’s government hopes the train will help the country’s [economic / economy] as business people can now travel across the country a [lot / loads] quicker.

Chinese media say the [bullet / bulletin] train service started on 26 December to commemorate the [birth / born] of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong. The train is also a [sigh / sign] 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 [truck / track] , which is more than any other country in the world. It [plans / planning] to [extend / extension] this to 16,000 km by 2015 and 50,000 km by 2020. China Ministry of Railways spokesman Zhou Li [said / told] reporters: "The [opening / opened] of the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed line shows China's high-speed railway network has started to [take / do] shape." A passenger who travelled on the first train explained how [pride / proud] she was of the train, saying: “It’s amazing China has developed so quickly”.