China on last Sunday started building another 200 kilometer-per-hour passenger railway from Zhengzhou in central China's Henan Province to Xi'an in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

This is the fourth special railway line for passengers to start construction in the country this year. The line, with a length of 484.5 kilometers, will be completed in 2009.

Liu Zhijun, minister of Railways, said this railway line will make the relations between central and northwest China more closer and be conducive to the development of the western region.

China will build 120,000 kilometers of passenger lines by 2020. At present there is only one special passenger line, which runs from Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, to Qinhuangdao, a port city in north China's Hebei Province, with a length of 400 kilometers.

The other three lines that are under construction are: line from Shijiazhuang in Hebei to Taiyuan in Shanxi Province, line from Wuhan, capital of south China's Hubei Province, to Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, and line from Beijing to Tianjin.  

(Xinhua News Agency September 26, 2005)