BEIJING, April 18 (UPI) -- Construction began Friday on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, government officials said.
Xinhua reported that the 818-mile rail line is designed to travel at 217 miles per hour, and will cut the commute between Beijing and Shanghai by half, to about five hours.
The project is expected to be completed in five years. High-speed trains traveling on a leg between Beijing and Tianjin will begin running before the Olympics start in August, the news service said.
Attending the ground-breaking ceremony for the $36 billion project was Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who laid the cornerstone for the line.
Plans for the rail line began more than a decade ago. The State Council approved the feasibility study report last August.
"China's railway service has long fallen short of demand," said Li Heping, a researcher at the China Academy of Railway Sciences. "There are two solutions: building more railways and raising the train speed."
