On Nov 27, the last pair of long steel rails for the Xi'an-Shiyan High-speed Railway were laid. This marked the completion of the railway's track laying project and set the foundation for subsequent testing.

The Xi'an-Shiyan High-speed Railway starts from Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, crossing the Qinling Mountains, and ends in Shiyan, Hubei province. The main line is 255.7 kilometers long, with a designed speed of 350 km per hour.

Once operational, the travel time from Xi'an to Shiyan will be reduced to about 1 hour and the railway travel time from Wuhan — capital of Hubei province — to Xi'an will be shortened to around 2.5 hours.