FUZHOU -- A high-speed railway between Hefei and Fuzhou, capitals of central Anhui and southeastern Fujian provinces, started operations on Sunday, cutting travel time between a number of cities.

With a top speed of 300 kilometers per hour, this is China's first high-speed railway across mountainous areas.

The railway will cut travel times between Fuzhou and Hefei from 8 hours to 4 hours, according to railway authorities.

Threading through many of popular tourist destinations including the Yellow Mountain of Anhui, Sanqing Mountain of Jiangxi, and Wuyi Mountain of Fujian, the railway is the "most beautiful high-speed railway" in China.

Hefei-Fuzhou high-speed railway was the most difficult railway to build in terms of topography, with 85.8 percent of the track built on bridges or in tunnels, Ye Bingcheng, chief designer of the Hefei-Fuzhou Railway.

As part of the longer high-speed railway between Fuzhou and Beijing, it cuts the travel time between the two cities from the original of more than 10 hours to less than 8 hours.

Crossing or running parallel to 16 other railways, the new railway will help cut travel time between Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi province, and Hefei from 7 hours to 4 hours, cut the travel time between Nanchang and Guiyang, capital of Guizhou province, from the original 18.5 hours to 5 hours.

After China's first bullet train shot from the assembly line in 2008, high-speed rail has expanded prodigiously, with over 16,000 kilometers of fast track in operation and another 10,000 kilometers under construction.