North China's Shanxi province opened its first high speed train to Shenyang, Liaoning province, on Jan 10, shortening travel time to Northeast China by over five hours.

It runs 1,195 kilometers through Shanxi, Hebei, Tianjin, and Liaoning, and stops at 14 railway stations--Yangquan North, Shijiazhuang, Dingzhou East, Baoding East, Baigou, Bazhou West, Tianjin West, Tangshan, Beidaihe, Qinhuangdao, Shanhaiguan, Huludao North, Jinzhou North, and Tai'an.

"It takes just less than one day, and this is much more convenient," said Teng Zeyuan, a senior at the Shanxi University of Finance and Economics who usually had to spend 11 hours at night taking ordinary trains to go home during holidays.

"The high-speed train only needs about seven hours, so I stayed at school a few days more after the winter vacation started at the end of December to take the high speed train back," Teng added.

The train to Northeast China, G2602, starts at 7:36 am from Taiyuan, capital of North China's Shanxi province, and takes seven hours and 38 minutes to arrive at Shenyang North at 15:14 pm.

It also passes Qinhuangdao, Hebei province, and the city of Tianjin, making the journey from Taiyuan to Tianjin more convenient. Another two high speed trains, G2602 that starts from Taiyuan South to Qinhuangdao, and D2022 starting from Taiyuan South to Tianjin West, also opened operations on the same day.

The three?high speed trains are very convenient for passengers traveling to Tianjin as they no longer have to go via Beijing.

High speed train G2602 starts from Taiyuan at 7:36 am and arrives at Tianjin West at 11:05 am, and the G2606 starts at 8:40 am and arrives at 12:02 pm. The D2022 train departs from Taiyuan South at 14:40 pm and arrives at Tianjin West at 18:46 pm.

High speed trains G2604/2601, departing at 15:35 pm from Shenyang North and arriving at Taiyuan South at 23:03 pm, also opened on Jan 10.