The newly opened high-speed railway line connecting China's capital Beijing and Zhangjiakou City in the northern Hebei Province saw its first train pulling into Zhangjiakou station on Monday.
The new inter-city rail is a major project for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
It will reduce the travel time between Beijing and Zhangjiakou, the co-host city of the 2022 Winter Olympics, from the currently three hours seven minutes to 47 minutes.
The Beijing-Zhangjiakou rail line is 174 kilometers long, with a maximum design speed of 350 kilometers per hour.
Ten stations are along the railway line, namely Beijing North, Qinghe, Shahe, Changping, Badaling, Donghuayuan North, Huailai, Xiahuayuan North, Xuanhua North and Zhangjiakou.
The new smart trains running on the new high-speed rail have two versions -- the standard and the Olympic.
As an upgrade of China's Fuxing bullet train, the standard smart trains are equipped with an intelligent system which allows for automatic starts and stops, self-driving and smart door control.
The Olympic version has a storage room specially designed for passengers' skiing equipment.
Mobile press centers are also to be built when the Olympic trains are officially put into operation. For both versions of the train, inspection is conducted by robots.
Passengers can board the train with facial recognition and other valid credentials like IDs and passports, which largely improves boarding efficiency.
Chongli railway, a branch line of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway, also went into service on Monday. It is 53 kilometers long, with a maximum design speed of 250 kph. Chongli District will host most of the skiing events during the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway began in the first half of 2016. The railway completed test runs earlier this month.
The railway line is expected to boost the development of tourism and winter sports in Zhangjiakou.
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