As of the end of 2012, China's high-speed rail network will take shape and the travel time between Beijing and most of the capital cities will be reduced to within 8 hours, with Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province as the circle.

The combined railway lines of Wuhan-Guangzhou, Wuhan-Shanghai, Beijing-Wuhan high-speed rail, to be completed construction next year and Wuhan-Yichang line, to open in 2010, will form a "cross-frame high-speed rail lines," which will be connected with China's high-speed network, according to news from the three-day Seventh World Congress on High Speed Rail, which opened on Tuesday in Beijing.

According to planning of the Ministry of Railways, it will take one hour from Beijing to Tianjin and Shi Jiazhuang; two hours to Shenyang, Jinan, Zhenzhou, Taiyuan and Hohhot; three hours to Hefei, Nanjing and Changchun; four hours to Shanghai, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Xi'an and Harbin; five hours to Changsha, Lanzhou, Nanchang and Yichuan; six hours to Fuzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing and Xining; seven hours to Guangzhou and Guiyang; and eight hours or above to Kunming, Haikou, Nanning, Urumqi, Lhasa, Hong Kong and Macao.

At present, more than 7,530 kilometers of high-speed railway lines have been put into operation on the Chinese mainland, ranked first worldwide.

As of 2012, the mileage will exceed 11,000 kilometers, and the newly-constructed high-speed rail will reach 13,000 kilometers, mainly including lines between Harbin and Dalian; Wuhan and Beijing; Hefei and Fuzhou; Shanghai and Kunming and more.

By Liang Jun, People's Daily Online