2011-02-20 09:09

China Odyssey Tours promotions specialist Zhang Yuan says her company plans to "make good use of the high-speed rails this year".

"We've already updated our website to include the schedules and information. And we will design more useful train-related online content and develop tour packages based on the high-speed lines."

Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed train on its trial run. [Provided to China Daily]

Another 4,715 kilometers of high-speed track will be laid this year. The new circuits will run between Beijing and Shanghai, and Beijing and Heilongjiang's provincial capital Harbin. A Beijing-Wuhan extension will also be added to the Beijing-Guangzhou line, the Ministry of Railways says.

"People will increasingly discover they can span longer distances in shorter times with faster and more convenient connections among cities," Wang Yongping says.

Wang Yongping believes the development of high-speed lines will also show travelers that it is sometimes the journey, as well as the destination, that makes the trip worthwhile.

"Like Japan's Shinkansen, China's high-speed trains will become tourist attractions in themselves, because they provide the unique experience of traveling through the country at speeds reaching 390 km per hour," he says.

The China National Tourism Office's International Coordination Department director Man Hongwei says he believes the best of what high-speed railways have to offer travelers in China is yet to be seen.

"We hope that one day, high-speed railways can connect all of the cities in China," he says.

"On that day, the country's tourism will have entered the high-speed era."

Guo Shuhan contributed to the story