Nanjing news

he high-speed railway line is essentially a link to bridge Beijing and Shanghai. Between those two points, other cities will benefit: the main stops on this line will be Beijing, Tianjin, Jinan, Nanjing and Shanghai.

The top speed of this train is 350km/h. Beijing to Shanghai will take 5 hours. Nanjing to Shanghai will take 75 57 minutes.

The rail lines being built will also be able to accommodate regular trains (with a minimum speed of 200km/h) meaning that the number of trains running in all directions will increase.

The new high-speed railway station will be located in the Jiangning area in the south of Nanjing (see map for the exact location). Also in that area, heavy construction continues on the south extension of Nanjing Metro line #1.

Here is a look at the construction in the area:

Metro line #1, south extension

This is planned to open to the public on May 1, 2010. In total it has 15 stations, 11 of which will be in Jiangning.

Metro line #2

Running east to west through the center of the city, this line is also expected to open on May 1, 2010. This line has 19 stations, and two juntion points with the original line one (at Xinjiekou and Yuantong stations).

Progress report

So is everything on pace? Well, there weren't any people around in the area for me to ask, except for the workers. I asked this fellow in the picture for an update.

He told me: "Listen, I am just a laborer. The boss tells me to do something, I do it. I don't ask questions, so I can't tell you anything useful."

I needed to give the guy a cigarette and get him to calm down a little.

Finally, when he was calm, he told me: "It seems that everything is going according to the schedule, smoothly. As for the high speed railway line, this is what I am working on.

You can see there there will actually be two lines – an elevated one and one built on a ground base. So, the trains will be able to run in two different directions."