Han Ximin

1824295095@qq.com

THE Meizhou-Longchuan section of the under-construction Longyan-Longchuan High-speed Railway will open Saturday and cut the travel time between Shenzhen and Meizhou in northeastern Guangdong Province to 1.5 hours, according to Shenzhen North Station on Thursday.

At 94 kilometers long, the Meizhou-Longchuan section is part of the 290-km Longyan-Longchuan High-speed Railway that links the cities of Longyan in Fujian Province and Heyuan in Guangdong.

With three stations in Meizhou and one station in Heyuan, the Meizhou-Longchuan section will connect to the Meizhou-Shantou High-speed Railway at Meizhou West Station and the Ganzhou-Shenzhen High-speed Railway at Longchuan West Station.

Designed to operate at 350 kilometers per hour, the section is the first to be independently funded and constructed by Guangdong Province.

According to the Guangzhou Railway Group Corp., the railway will play a significant role in integrating eastern Guangdong into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Known as the “Hakka Capital of the World,” Meizhou is home to millions of Hakka people whose ancestors are believed to have moved from Central China to the south centuries ago. With a long history and profound accumulation of Hakka heritage, it is both the final settlement place for the Hakka who moved south and the main departure place for the Hakka who have spread across the world since the Ming and Qing dynasties.

The Meizhou-Longchuan section is one of three sections of the Longyan-Longchuan High-speed Railway. The 92-kilometer Longyan-Wuping section in Fujian opened Dec. 26, 2023. The Wuping-Meizhou section is currently under construction.