Rail line symbol of nation's strength

Travel time between Hohhot and Beijing, a distance of 500 km, is expected to be shortened from nearly 10 hours to about two hours with the launch of the new service. People traveling from Datong will need about an hour and 42 minutes to get to the capital.

"I used to get on the train in the morning and arrive at my home in Hohhot late at night. It's frustrating to spend two days on the round trips. But with the operation of the line, I can even go back over weekends," said Guo Cun, 29, who works in a battery company in Beijing.

"The new rail lines will help these regions better connect with the country's high-speed railway network and thus greatly save the travel time for the local people along the railway," said Zhao Jian, an economics professor specializing in rail transportation at Beijing Jiaotong University.

The high-speed service will also strengthen the flow of labor and information between those cities and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and boost regional integration and coordinated economic growth, he added.

Xinhua contributed to this story.