SERVICE: Railway staff prepare coffee for passengers onboard the test run of a high-speed train from Beijing to Zhengzhou on December 22 (XINHUA)

On December 22, domestic and foreign journalists were invited to board a test run of a high-speed train from Beijing to Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province.

The Beijing-Zhengzhou portion is the final high-speed rail link connecting the country's capital to Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province. The line is 2,298 km in length and a trip on a high-speed train would take roughly eight hours, a significant drop from the usual 20-hour journey.

The Beijing-Zhengzhou line is also expected to boost the development of some of the country's underdeveloped inland provinces. Zhengzhou is the focal point of the central economic zone encompassing Henan and parts of Hebei, Shanxi, Anhui and Shandong provinces.

Tickets for the Beijing-Guangzhou journey went on sale on December 20. The new line from Beijing will run through the provincial capitals of Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Changsha and Guangzhou.