Passengers board a high-speed train heading for Guangdong's Zhanjiang at the Guangzhou Baiyun Railway Station in Guangdong province on Monday. Chen Jimin/China News Service

Train number G9785 was ready to depart Guangzhou Baiyun Railway Station at 10:30 am on Monday for Zhanjiang in western Guangdong province, marking the official commencement of the newly built Guangzhou-Zhanjiang high-speed railway.

At nearly the same time, train G9787 departed Shantou in eastern Guangdong for Guangzhou as the section between Shantou and Shantou South railway stations along the Shantou-Shanwei high-speed railway also began operations.

The 19.8-kilometer section connects both sides of Shantou Bay. The project brings the main urban area of Shantou into the era of 350-km-per-hour high-speed rail while creating an east-west synergy with the simultaneously opened Guangzhou-Zhanjiang line.

The operation of the two new lines helps connect Zhanjiang and Shantou — two major sub-center cities in western and eastern Guangdong, respectively — to a two-hour transportation circle within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, according to railway operators.

The Guangzhou-Zhanjiang line, which has a design speed of 350 km/h, passes through cities including Foshan, Zhaoqing, Yunfu, Yangjiang and Maoming.

Construction on the line began early in 2019. The railway significantly reduces travel time between western Guangdong and the core area of the Pearl River Delta region to less than two hours.

The railway spans approximately 401 km, with bridges and tunnels accounting for 76.7 percent of the route in western Guangdong.