At 8:38 am on Friday, a train with about 350 passengers departed Chongqing Caiyuanba Railway Station, marking the Lanzhou-Chongqing line's official opening.

After the 886-kilometer railway line passes through Sichuan province, it dips into Shaanxi province before passing through Gansu to reach Lanzhou, the province's capital. The project, started in 2008, is the country's third main north-south rail line after the Beijing-Shanghai and Beijing-Guangzhou lines.

This significant part of the country's railway network speeds up travel between the western regions and the rest of the country.